Mark was calving around 1200 cows in sync with nature. Mark Bowman, a PCC customer in Western Nebraska, once told me about an encounter he had with his dad who was over 80 years old at the time. Would you be able to calve 500+ cows by yourself if every calf had to be ear tagged at birth? No – but you could if you did not have to tag calves. Ride out and bring in the dink pairs to be sold. Turn those dink calves back out with the cows – and they will make a beeline to their mommas. Some might ask, “So how do we identify the cows that produce the dink calves?” That’s easy… after separating the cows and calves at weaning, sort off the dink calves. You do NOT have to be there to see every calf born! Also… any cattleman worth his salt can pair up cows and calves without ear tags. All of the problems producers associate with calving will magically disappear when cows are calved in sync with nature. Bred cows are much easier to handle, haul or drive than pairs. I suggest you move bred cows to summer pasture and allow them to calve in sync with nature on green grass. People say they need to have an easy way to pair up cows and calves when going to summer pasture. For every reason people have given me to justify why they tag calves at birth, I have always been able provide an alternative. Tagging calves at birth is a paradigm that most producers struggle to get away from.
I am often drawn into discussing this “kooky notion” at my speaking engagements. You would have the time and the money to take the family on extensive vacations. You could create a very profitable, enjoyable and sustainable business for the next generation. You could be getting paid two or four times more for doing half as much work.
This could easily double, triple or quadruple your profits per acre. The time and money most producers spend on things like keeping individual animal records and ear tagging calves at birth could be used to improve grazing management via fences and water development. They spend their time (and money) on things that increase their profits. It would be impossible for these ranches to tag calves at birth. The most profitable ranches are running 500 to over 1000 cows per man. Because tagging calves is time consuming, it will set the limit as to how many cows you can run. Even if you have a short 45-day calving season, you will have at least 90 trips to and through the cows. If you don’t go at least twice a day, you will not be able to catch the calves. Tagging calves requires you to ride or drive to the cows and through the cows. It takes a whole lot more time than 30 to 60 seconds per calf. I still believe most ranchers can double their profit per acre once they stop focusing on the wrong things.įourth, ear tagging calves at birth is very time consuming. Consequently, the result of focusing on individual animal performance is reduced profits. This has created high-maintenance cattle that do not fit any environment outside of a feedlot. For the past 50 years, the status quo beef industry has been enamored with increasing individual animal performance. Third, ear tagging calves sets you up to keep records on individual animal performance which will keep you from maximizing sustainable profit per acre. Any outside interference does more harm than good. This is a very critical time for a newborn calf. Second, ear tagging calves at birth disrupts the bond between a momma cow and her newborn calf. How would you feel if someone in your family got hurt while tagging a newborn calf? Every year we hear about someone being seriously injured or killed while trying to tag a newborn calf. There are at least four problems with ear tagging calves at birth. It does not have to be done within a few hours after birth. I am not against putting identification ear tags in every animal – but it can be done when the calves are run through a chute for vaccinations, etc.
If you are a commercial rancher (not raising registered cattle), you are NOT getting paid to ear tag your calves. To begin with, each and every one of your cows knows which calf is hers – without an ear tag. I’m sure many subscribers are saying, “What’s wrong with tagging calves at birth?” Ear tagging calves at birth was one of those kooky notions. Several years ago, the PCC Discussion Group came up with several “Kooky Notions” that the members used to have. Most do it because they have always done it. Many cow-calf producers think it is sacrilegious to not ear tag calves at birth.
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