There is ample opportunity for New Zealand farmers to improve the profitability of the beef cow sector and also to improve reproductive performance of their beef cows.


Massey University professor Steve Morris says for the last 35 years the calving rate for beef cows has been in the order of 80%.


“This is not as good as it could be but in fact it’s is not bad by overseas standards. For example, when I was in Argentina recently, they had weaning rates of 68%.


“In saying this I acknowledge that some New Zealand farmers work on the formula of the number of calves per 100 cows wintered and if you go with this formula the percentage is closer to 90%,” he says.


Morris says one of the ways to improve animal performance is to accurately monitor this throughout the year and he believes that some farmers have been making inaccurate “guestimates” about the weight of their cows for years.


He says many simply don’t know the weight of their animals and this makes it difficult to take actions to enhance animal performance.


Morris is hopeful some younger farmers will get the message about data collection and invest time and money in this aspect of their farming operation – buy a set of scales and use them.
Another way of lifting performance of beef cows is to compact the calving time.


“Having most of the cows calving at the same time helps with feed budgeting and flows right through to the sale process where the animals are at even age and size. Even the heifers going back into the herd are all even and that makes for easier management and cost savings.”


Morris believes beef cows are becoming the forgotten heroes of the hill country.


While there have always been farmers who recognise the value of the beef cow, when you try and evaluate the cow in straight economic terms it quite often falls behind other classes of stock.


“The big problem has been trying to evaluate the benefit of the beef cow in its role as a groomer of pasture in the hill country. In the hill country, browntop has to be controlled way out into January and February. Beef cows do this, which in turn helps the sheep that follow them on to the pasture.


“As well as doing a great job for farmers, it could be argued that the beef cow plays a role in the tourism industry by making sure that our farms look great for the tourists who drive through our countryside,” he adds.


Morris says beef cows complement sheep but they have to be managed in tandem because they graze at different heights – you can’t have beef cows on short pasture, otherwise you will lower their performance.


But he says cows are more resilient to feed shortages in winter and can lose some weight and provide feed for other stock, but to achieve this they need to be well fed in the spring and summer.


In hill country the beef cow is the only option to control pasture.