1. Replacement Trends In AgSource Herds
Ron Curran, Manager Market Development

2. What We’ll Cover… What is “culling”
Good culling
Bad culling
AgSource data on cows leaving herd – based on herd sizes
What AgSource is doing to measure herd replacement dynamics
Your suggestions

3. Why Cull or Replace?
Replace an economically unprofitable animal with a more profitable animal
No “ideal” replacement rate
Some culling is profitable
If genetic program is working, your heifers should, as a group, have the highest genetic potential in a herd
If producer is to make progress, needs to identify poor producers and replace

4. Unprofitable Culling
Generally, early lactation – cow or heifer is at her highest value and she gets “broken”
Not reflected in rolling herd average (culled before making any effect), but hugely detrimental to profitability if done frequently

5. Technically… All culling done because of low production
A cow has a 3,000,000 SCC and milks 90#/ day and is kept. SCC drops to 2,500,000 and production to 50# and she is culled
A cow is open at 400 days milking 80#, confirmed pregnant at 450 days and drops to 50# and is culled

6. What AgSource Measures…
Heifers entering the herd
Cows entering the herd
Heifers leaving the herd
Cows leaving the herd
I am concentrating on heifers and cows leaving, eliminate the “noise” of herds expanding if using animals entering data

7. What AgSource Data Shows
Source: AgSource Dec Data

8. What This Data Shows?
“Heifers Leaving” and “Cows Leaving” rates are very similar across the board
Larger differences within herd size groups than between
Heifers Leaving
High 9.13% for herds cows
Low % for herds <25 cows
Cows Leaving
High 30.41% for herds <25 cows
Low 27.35% for herds cows

9. Heifers and Cows Entering
Source: AgSource Dec Data
Larger herds are expanding, adding more animals – not a problem in so far as examining culling and replacement programs
This demand is increasing value of replacements, however

10. Where Our Challenges Are!
This is BAD!!!

11. What AgSource Is Doing
Including previous graph in Herd Summary Report – late summer 2003
Using 30 day intervals
Splitting bar, heifers and later lactation animals will be shown separately
Producer’s can’t manage early lactation culling if they can’t measure it!

12. July 2003 Herd Summary Report Changes

13. WisGraph Information

14. Challenges Ahead…
“Dairies don’t need DHI production information to make culling decisions because cows cull themselves.”
We need to reduce involuntary culling to raise the value of our production information
Two cows each milking 20,000 pounds:
3.0% fat 2.7% protein $1,762
4.0% fat 3.1% protein $2,130
Hard to sell the value of this information

15. Next - Your Suggestions
What do you think…
How can we help our members make more money replacing animals in their herds?
What can we do together to achieve this goal?