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Update your offspring recordsBy Michael Fisher Golden Plains Area Livestock Extension Agent Colorado If you are like me, you dread the thought of keeping up with recordkeeping. It often seems like a frustrating consumption of time that could be used elsewhere. However, recordkeeping is a vital part of any business, especially in this day and age, as the livestock industry faces greater oversight and a stronger sense of what I will call margin compression. (Input costs rise at a greater proportion than your product's market value, causing your margin to be "compressed".) Most of our '08 spring calves and lambs in northeastern Colorado have hit the ground. So now is a good time to take a few minutes and sit down with your herd/flock management software, three-ring binder, Big Chief notepad, scratch nail and barn door, or whatever method it is that you use to maintain an idea of where your bottom line is. At the very minimum, record the date that your first and last animals were born. In September, COOL is scheduled to take effect. One of the aspects of this new law is that a packer needs to have either in possession or be able to access various records including birth date. As Jack Whittier recently posted in an article that he wrote, the current language states: "Any person engaged in the business of supplying a covered commodity to a retailer, directly or indirectly, must maintain records to establish and identify the immediate previous source (if applicable) and immediate subsequent recipient of the product. The record must identify the product unique to that transaction by means of a lot number or other unique identifier, for a period of one year from the date of the transaction". A cow-calf herd or a lambing flock would be an indirectly engaged business. Another record concern is your bottom line. Do you know how much an individual cow or ewe is either making or losing for you? An even better question might be: Do you know how much your bull or ram is making or costing you? If you are one of those producers who weighed your calf or lamb crop as they arrived, this is a good time to make sure that you add that data to your records. This provides you with a benchmark that you can follow and make comparisons to as you measure the weaning weights this fall. This should allow you to evaluate if a particular maternal line, or for that matter a paternal line, on your ranch is not performing. It is always important to be able to know which animals in your herd/flock are not performing but, as feed costs continue to increase, it becomes even more imperative to understand this relationship. So take a few minutes and spend some quality time with your herd/flock's recordkeeping system. At a minimum, it will help to keep you organized. On the other hand, it may potentially be your first step to pinpointing some of your excess costs and help you make the necessary adjustments for 2009. If you wish to discuss this subject further, Michael Fisher can be reached through the Yuma County Extension office at 970-332-4151 or by e-mail at mj.fisher@colostate.edu. 7/21/08 Date: 7/16/08 Advertisement
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