A quicker change for cow herd genetics

You can upgrade the genetic quality of your beef cow herd the old-fashioned way by buying better bulls and saving those heifers. Or, you may be able to accelerate the process by buying-in replacement heifers. Here are three programs that can help you do that.

F1 baldy heifers from an elite hereford ranch

Topp Herefords, Grace City, North Dakota, sells registered Hereford bulls, and many of them go to commercial Angus herds, resulting in some high-quality baldy calves. Ryan Topp says they offer added value to their bull customers by helping them market those calves through several different contract programs.

One program involves Topp Herefords buying back the first-cut heifer calves sired by Topp bulls for a heifer development and marketing program. For the calf raiser, the buy-back premium can make the heifer calves equal in price to steer calves, explains Topp.

Topp Herefords, along with heifer partner Bill Pitz of Farley, Iowa, then develops and breeds the heifers and sells them the following year as F1 Hereford-Angus baldy bred heifers. Some are bred to registered Angus bulls, some to registered Red Angus.

Most years, Topp says, they will develop and sell 2,500 to 3,000 heifers to producers across the country. “They go through an intense selection process. We go to the ranch where they were raised and make the first cut, typically selecting about 60% of the heifer calves. Then they go through two or three more cuts as we develop them,” he says. 

Most of the heifers are sold after breeding and preg-check. They are sorted into two- to three-week calving periods. “When you buy them, you’re getting a premium heifer sorted into a pretty concise calving window,” says Topp.

Some of the heifers are sold right out of the artificial insemination chute in May, and not confirmed pregnant. In that case, you’d have to run a cleanup bull. Some heifers are sold in August after preg-check, and a few may be available later in the fall after a second preg-check.

There is always a good demand for the heifers, Topp says, and some ranchers order early to get what they want. 

Prices vary depending on when you buy, but Topp promises competitive prices that allow him a margin for his development and breeding costs.

Missouri Show-Me Select Replacement Heifer Program

This is the granddaddy of elite heifer development programs. For over 25 years Missouri cattle producers have been developing heifers for sale to other producers (in any state). It’s run by Missouri cattle producers with administrative help from University of Missouri Extension. 

These heifers are raised on individual Show-Me Select member farms. To be eligible for sale, heifers have to meet strict protocols of health, vaccinations, and reproductive soundness. They must be bred to calving-ease bulls, and they must be confirmed pregnant before sale date. 

Most are sold through special Show-Me Select sales at one of several regional auctions across Missouri. A few are sold straight from the farm.

Daniel Mallory is the Missouri Extension coordinator of the program for northeast Missouri. He says many heifers offered are synched and artificially bred (although that’s not a requirement). “Buyers often know the calving date,” says Mallory.

The heifers can be of any breeding, but the majority are Angus crosses. “In our area, we get quite a number of true F1 Angus-Hereford females offered, so you can get the full value of heterosis in the cows,” says Mallory.

Interest in the program is on the uptick, he thinks, with more commercial producers looking to upgrade herd genetics by buying quality heifers, rather than home raising. “It removes the management of saving, selecting, and developing heifers,” Mallory says.

He knows of one producer who has bought Show-Me Select heifers every year except one since the program started. “It’s his entire herd replacement strategy,” says Mallory. 

At the most recent sale in northeast Missouri, prices averaged $2,705 per head for Show-Me Select heifers.

Buy heifer embryos

TransOva Genetics has a product line called ProGentus which offers a more technology advanced replacement heifer strategy through embryo transfer. With this program and their expertise, you buy or produce high quality heifer embryos for implanting into your cows for a rapid genetic upgrade.

There are a couple of options, explains TransOva business acquisition specialist Cary Crow.

One program called GenPlus offers embryos you can buy directly that originated in elite herds on both the male and female side. The ProGenus genetics team creates F1 (50-50) crosses from these breeding lines to excel in maternal characteristics. Hereford-Angus or Brahman-Hereford are common crosses. The embryos are created by sex-sorted semen to be female calves only. 

“You can get elite maternal characteristics from both sides, plus the added benefit of locking in 100% heterosis in the F1 embryos,” says Crow. “If you control both sides, you can make a huge leap in genetic change in just one generation. You can make F1 females that are the best mothers in the business.”

TransOva will help you implant the embryos into your own cows at home, which become surrogate mothers to the calves. The cost starts at $160 per embryo, and there may be additional costs based on the technical assistance you need to implant embryos. 

Another ProGentus product is more of a custom program to create and flush embryos from the best cows already in your own herd, then implant them into your other cows as surrogates. Again, with sex-sorted semen technology you are producing female embryos only. You can choose sires that excel in producing offspring with top mothering characteristics. 

The costs for this program can vary depending on the size of your herd and the technical expertise you need.

To transfer embryos, you put your cows through a heat-synching process, just like if you were doing timed AI. A week after normal AI time, you implant the embryos. 

Typically, about 60% of embryo transfers will result in a pregnancy. Also important to know is that sex-sorted semen is 90% to 95% successful at producing calves of the desired sex.