Are Management Practices for Cows and Calves Worth the Cost?
Ranching is risky, but some of that risk can be mitigated with calf management and reproductive management practices that can improve weaning weights, reduce death losses and increase profi tability.
B
Y THE TIME THIS ARTICLE IS READ, YOU MAY HAVE ALREADY attended the 2016 Cattle Raisers Convention and heard Mac Young’s presentation on the economic
impact of calf and reproduction management practices. Young, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension program spe- cialist in risk management, is based in Corpus Christi. In 1997, the 75th Texas Legislature provided Texas
A&M AgriLife Extension Service with funds to develop a pilot risk-management education program addressing the increased fi nancial and marketing risk associated with production agriculture in Texas. A pilot program was ini- tiated in the Texas Panhandle, South Plains and Rolling Plains. It was expanded in 1998 to cover the entire state. The goals of the program, referred to as the Texas
Risk Management Education Program (TRMEP) are: 1) Assist Texas farmers and ranchers in better identi- fying sources of risk in their operations
2) Inform producers of how to use available tools and/ or strategies for managing risk
74 The Cattleman April 2016
3) Help producers quantify fi nancial impacts of al- ternative risk management strategies As a part of TRMEP, the Financial and Risk Man-
agement (FARM) Assistance program was born, a program best described as a computer-assisted deci- sion tool to aid producers in making better manage- ment decisions. In his presentation, Young discussed 2 risk assess-
ment studies: (1) economic impact of calf management practices and (2) economic impact of reproduction management practices. The fi rst study was reported in Farm Assistance Focus 2014-2 and the second in Farm Assistance Focus 2015-1, both Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service publications. Here is a summary of Young’s studies.
Calf management practices “Higher cattle and input prices increase fi nancial risks in beef cattle production, especially when debt
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