Cattle Recordkeeping System for Success

“As a new year begins, cattle producers may find value in looking back at the previous year to evaluate the operation’s productivity and profitability,” says Patrick Davis, University of Missouri Extension livestock field specialist. In this previous year’s evaluation, cattle producers should evaluate their recordkeeping system and determine if it was successful or if changes are needed. If your system needs some changes, Davis will provide some suggestions for improvement to help cattle producers be successful in recordkeeping.

“Proper cattle identification is important to a recordkeeping system,” says Davis. Two nationally known identification systems are the four-digit system and the letter and three-digit system.

“The first number of the four-digit system represents the last digit of the calf birth year,” says Davis. The rest of the numbers in the four-digit system represent the calf’s birth order that year. For example, the identification of the 56th calf born in 2025 is 5056. One problem with this system is the potential for identification duplication of the cows that are 10 years or older with younger cows in the herd.

“The letter and three-digit system reduces potential cow identification duplication in the herd because it uses a letter to represent the year,” says Davis. The letter represents the year the calf was born, and three digits represent the calf birth order during that year. For example, N is the letter assigned to 2025, so N056 is the identification number for the 56th calf born in 2025. The letter changes yearly in sequential order, except I, O, Q and V, which are not used for identification.

“Identification markings need to be permanent and easy to read,” says Davis. Furthermore, Davis suggests permanent calf identification markings of ear tattooing or branding in combination with ear tagging. The new electronic identification tags are helpful in tracking and collection of data in a total electronic format. No matter what form of identification is used, Davis suggests identifying the animal as soon as possible after birth to aid in proper operation recordkeeping.

“The goal of the recordkeeping system is evaluating entire herd productivity and pinpointing success as well as problems within the operation,” says Davis. Cow-calf producers should use a system that accurately collects data to evaluate the breeding and calving season as well as weaning.

“Breeding season data is helpful in determining reproductive efficiency of the cattle operation,” he says. Cattle producers should record the number of bred cows and heifers and compare that to the total number of cows and heifers that were exposed during the breeding season. This determines pregnancy percentage, which evaluates reproductive efficiency of the cattle operation. In addition, Davis suggests identifying and culling any open cows and heifers so that resources can be dedicated to productive cows and heifers in the operation.

“After calving, determine calving percentage by comparing number of cows with live calves to the number of cows and heifers that were pregnant during the previous breeding season,” says Davis. This measurement evaluates calf death loss due to dystocia (calving difficulty), spontaneous abortion or any other reproductive health problems. Also, Davis suggests identifying and culling any cows that lost their calves during this time so resources can be dedicated to productive cows in the operation.

“Multiple records and analysis can be used to evaluated cow herd productivity at weaning time,” he says. First look at weaning percentage by comparing the number of weaned calves by the number of animals that had a live calf. This evaluates calf death loss from calving to weaning. There are multiple ways to analyze calf weaning weight as it relates to cattle herd productivity, including:

• Comparison of pounds of weaned calf per cows exposed during the previous breeding season. This measurement ultimately tells the cattle producer the productivity of their herd.
• Comparison of calf weaning weight to cow body size at weaning. This measurement is an indicator of how productive each individual cow is, which can be very useful in identification of productive females that should be retained and poor producing females that should be removed from the herd to improve herd productivity.

Davis suggests contacting your local MU Extension livestock field specialist for more information on how to use a cow recordkeeping system to make your cattle operation successful.