One of the most important decisions managers of beef breeding enterprises make each year is how many replacement heifers are needed to maintain breeding herd numbers.
North Coast Local Land Services have released a new Factsheet and Budget Calculator that will help livestock producers in these important decisions.
While the majority of breeding enterprises choose to select from their own home bred heifers and develop them on farm until such time they enter the breeding herd, sometimes there is the need to buy extra replacement heifers or buying heifers can appear an easier option.
Both these strategies have advantages and disadvantages and in effect they both have a financial impact on the business.
Nathan Jennings, Senior Land Services Officer, said, “There is no way to generally suggest whether breeding or buying replacement heifers is the best option, as each producer has different resources, motivations and goals.
“Only by assessing the benefits and costs on an individual basis can a producer determine which replacement heifer strategy is the most economical for their business.”
Given that all producers have different enterprise goals, and most importantly farms have different capabilities for production, each producer needs to make the decisions independently of other local beef enterprises.
“In addition to providing tools such as the Budget Calculator, we recommend that producers discuss the proposed changes with advisors to gather further input or ideas specific to their enterprise,” Nathan concluded.