Hey fellow seekers,

When I think about why we make use of AI, I know it is all for the heifers. So why can’t all of these AI-sired calves be heifers? Why not at least half? Or even 40%?? I tried sexed semen a few years ago but did not get enough of a boost to pay the higher cost. So I take what I get now.

Calving season is going well for the most part, but most of the cows known to have either produced great heifers in the past, or daughters of such cows have produced bull calves this year. The vet had to assist with a couple of backward calves, stillborn–and in a perverse way, I felt better that those two were also bulls.  One premie heifer from AI was born in mid-February to the previously lauded 87 cow, a matriarch of the herd – she didn’t make it, and so it ends for 87. 

Overall, we have 55 calves now, with 20 heifers, so it could be worse.  I recall dining with a family up in Northeastern Iowa some 30 years ago, gathered round the table with a cattleman, his wife and six daughters. He joked about having no son, “the closest thing to a crop failure we’ve ever had here.” I’m sure it was all part of The Plan.

If there is a message for me from On High regarding the herd, it must be that I should not give way to the temptation to keep more replacement heifers this fall. Several years ago, before so many observers pronounced the Cattle Cycle dead, economists advised us to keep more heifers when they are cheap and sell them when they bring good money.

Maybe a Cattle Cycle will rise again out of all this uncertainty, and I will be ahead for having more calves to sell at these higher prices. I don’t know if God is a cattleman or a consultant, but He sure seems to take a keen interest in my herd. This goes all the way back to my first carcass data when there were four Standard YG 4s; I said they don’t need a second chance with that kind of result. But before I could cull for salvage value, one of the four cows died on pasture. That was the only time in 30 years we ever had a death from snakebite.

Our available grass is shrinking here, due to land sales where other family cattle had been on rented pasture, so we can do with fewer heifers this time around. I bet these AI steers will do quite well in the feedlot and on the rail. They have the genetics if I can provide the management.

Until next time… let’s aim for profit, target the brand and build tomorrow together.

~Steve