Record Keeping

Record keeping in cattle production is an important practice, because it helps to plan the cattle development and calculate investment, cost and profit of the business.  Patterson, a beef specialist suggested the  10 most important records to keep as follows:

1. Inventory. "Inventory is important because it provides all the numbers needed to calculate benchmark information,” Patterson says. Inventory to track includes:

• Number of cows exposed to bulls, which is important because it is a denominator in many calculations;
• Number of cows at calving time, to determine calving rate per cow exposed; and
• Number of calves weaned, to determine weaning rater per cow exposed.
• Other inventory includes number of cattle sold or dead/and the date; number of head purchased and the date; number of replacement females; and number of bulls.

2. Individual animal identification.

Individual animal ID records should document the calf's place of origin, date of birth and health, vaccination and BQA treatment records (i.e. what treatments given and when.)

Once you have individual animal information, Patterson points out that a producer can also use that to track production and performance data for making replacement heifer decisions, culling animals that have a history of dysctocia or other problems, and tracking cow herd longevity.

3. Market Weights. Patterson advocates having weights on calves, cows and bulls, at minimum by group, with individual weights being even better.

4. Pregnancy Data. Patterson advises pregnancy checking the herd annually as a record keeping tool. He says, "Consider if 5% of the herd is open. That is costing you to keep those females in the herd. So it makes sense to preg-check and then sort and market the open cattle."

5. Calving Data. this should include both the calf and dam ID, a calving/dystocia score for making future culling decisions, and the birth date, birth weight, and deaths. Again, this allows for documentation of age and birth origin of the animals in the herd, and the data can also be used as criteria to cull late calvers, says Patterson.

6. Pasture usage. This is a record you may not think of keeping, but it can be a valuable tool for drought management. Patterson suggests documenting when a pasture is used each year, precipitation levels, and the stocking rate. Having this information can help you plan when and how to use pastures the following year and avoid negatively impacting range condition by using pastures at the same time every year. It also gives a record of historical stocking rates.

7. Feed Purchase Records. Given the current BSE situation and ban on particular feedstuffs, Patterson says, "I'd want this in my file. That way if you ever have a BSE incidence you can prove that you didn’t feed high risk materials." For these records he says to keep dates, supplier and feed tags, and document that the feed was legal at that time. Patterson says to keep past feed records for at least 10 years.

8. Sire Information. Again, this is information all seedstock breeders keep, but commercial producers would do well to track it also. Patterson says by documenting what bulls were with each group of cows producers can better follow genetic goals and who is producing quality progeny, or if ever there is a problem bull, you know who it was.

9. Enterprise costs. To really understand the costs that go into your business, Patterson recommends breaking costs down by enterprise (i.e. cow/calf, feeders, crop or hayland, etc). He says costs such as feed, maintenance, depreciation, interest, labor, etc. should be calculated for each enterprise.

10. Enterprise Revenues. Income for each enterprise should also be tracked. This includes cull cows, bulls, steers, heifers, feed, etc.