As one season sends, the next one begins! Sales season is ending just in time to begin spring breeding season. There are plenty of moving parts to the puzzle that is breeding season. You likely had to procure a new herd sire for the program during sale season. Then comes the decisions about which bulls to use in an AI program. After that, getting your matings planned and pasture groups figured out for cleanup sires. That doesn’t even begin to get into the toughest part of breeding season: the scheduling! If you AI, coordinating synch protocols with life and labor schedules can be exhausting.
While we probably can’t be much help on figuring out your calendar for getting your cows bred, we can help with some of the upfront work that goes into getting ready for breeding season. Here are a few options that we offer:
- Cow Herd EPD Reports: We will take the time to look at the paperwork of your cow herd and analyze them for both genetic strengths and areas of improvement. Whether it’s by cow age, sire groups, pasture groups, or some other combination that might be beneficial to you, we will study your cows and give you information in a summarized, user-friendly format.
- AI Sire Recommendations: If you’re still not sure which sires on the market are the best fit to improve your 2023 calf crop, let’s have a conversation to determine your goals for breeding season and things you need in a herd sire. Then, we will go to work to build a list of recommended options that meets your needs and can add value to your calf crop. This option works even better if we’ve already done an EPD analysis of your cows to give us a better picture of your operation to give us more working information! 😉
- Mating Planning: If you’re unsure which cows to turn out with a certain bull, or haven’t finalized your matings for AI yet, let us put our personalized mating calculator to work in your operation. This calculator, that we lovingly call SireSort, allows you as a breeder to place emphasis on which EPDs are the most important to your breeding program, then scores potential breedings based on where in the breed that potential cross would rank for your traits of choice. The scores are reported back to you as a simple, singular number along with bull recommendations.
Studying cattle breeding and mating planning is one of my most favorite parts of being in this industry, but I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. That’s why I developed these options and services to help seedstock producers who don’t enjoy this side of the business quite as much. With every customer, I study, plan, and make recommendations as if their cows were my own. If your cattle aren’t improving with each calf crop, then I’m not doing my job well enough.
If you want our services to go to work for you this breeding season, it’s not too late! Give me a call or an email today to discuss how we can be a benefit to your operation.
-Matt
731-694-6469
mrwcattle@gmail.com