Pregnancy checking isn’t always a good idea from an economics standpoint, says Canfax manager Brenna Grant.
In fact, it hasn’t paid off financially for the last 10 years because higher prices made it feasible to keep open cows and heifers through the winter and sell them at heavier weights in spring.
Now, that trend may be turning around.
“We’re back in a situation where it really does make sense to be preg checking again,” said Grant.
Lower cattle prices suggest it might be better to sell open cattle in fall.
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“The economics of preg checking are really dependent on the cull cow market price,” Grant said during a Sept. 15 webinar organized by the Beef Cattle Research Council.
A producer’s management system, feed costs, yardage and expected average daily gain on open cattle factor into the decision.
Generally speaking, the higher the overwinter feeding costs, the more value there is in fall preg checking, said Grant.
That’s particularly true if average daily gains are less than 1.2 pounds per day in a dry lot. That scenario favours fall preg checking and culling.
Daily gains of 1.5 lb. or more favour overwintering and selling in spring, when cow prices are generally higher than they are in fall.
“The incentive to retain your cows until spring is really going to depend on the condition of your cows in the fall,” said Grant.
“If they’re fat from being on grass all summer and there’s very little potential of additional weight gain over the winter, you’re maybe not going to see much benefit because you’re really only gaining that seasonal price variation.
“if your cows are a little bit on the thin side and by feeding them some additional days you’re going to have both the price increases as well as potentially moving those cows from a D3 to a D1 or a D2, you’re not going to just have the additional pounds sold. You’re also going to have a seasonal price increase as well as the difference in quality grades.”
D3 cows are discounted by 10 to 12 cents per lb. compared to D1 and D2 in the January to May period, she added.
Grant said the higher spring cow price, which has been a factor for about the last 10 years, has discouraged producers from preg checking.
Statistics show that cow prices from 2005-14 were 25 percent higher on average in spring compared to fall. Through that period, prices ranged from six percent higher in 2006 to 53 percent higher in 2009.
However, cow prices dropped last year between fall and spring, bucking the past trend.
As a benchmark, Grant said if prices are lower than $1.02 per lb., it might be better to preg check and cull in fall. Winter feeding costs vary widely, depending on whether producers swath graze, bale graze, feed standing corn or feed in a dry lot. She said winter feeding costs in Western Canada range from $1 to $1.80 per head per day.
Producers also have the option of short-term feeding the open cows to increase quality grade. That will depend on feed cost and availability, as well as bunk space.
A third option is to overwinter all cows without preg checking and then sell the open ones after spring calving.
The western Canadian cow-calf survey showed a conception rate of 93 percent for all females in 2013, which was down from the 1998 rate of 95.5 percent.
“It just means we have more open cows than we had 15 years ago and cull cows make up 15 to 30 percent of a cow-calf producer’s income, depending on his management style, and this means that the management of cull cows is not an insignificant aspect of a producer’s income,” said Grant.
The 2013 survey also showed about 60 percent of cow-calf producers preg check their herds, compared to about 50 percent in 1998.
A decision-making tool called Economics of Pregnancy Testing Beef Cattle is available on the research council’s website. Basic and advanced options are available.
