The start of a new season and year is the perfect time for beef producers to look back on what went well and think ahead to what can be improved.
Do you feel like you have a good understanding of your farm’s profit and production? Do you have goals for the upcoming season?
You can learn a lot about your farm when you make the effort to collect and take a look at your financial and production data. Perhaps you assumed an area of your operation was performing better than it truly was and records demonstrate improvement is needed. On the other hand, analysing data may point to improvements that you didn’t realize occurred.
Good farm records are useful to provide the data needed to understand your farm performance and will help take the guesswork out of management decisions. Research shows that when producers set goals and keep records, they can achieve up to 60 more pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed. Benchmarking also helps producers be prepared for challenging times such as drought and other environmental disasters, and will maximize the benefits of your annual VCPR (Veterinary Client Patient Relationship) visit with your herd veterinarian. Continue reading
