Color and horns are not that important in our selection process. Since we market the heifers that we do not keep in our herd as breeding stock, we are always asked how we select our own replacements. We have been keeping performance records on our herd through the Alabama Beef Cattle Improvement Association since 1981. Through these records we have identified the top bulls and cows in our operation. When certain cows are mated to proven bulls based on both parents records, the heifer calves are considered as potential replacements.
Final selection is made at weaning based on frame score and conformation.
Cow families are real important in our heifer selection. One example of the importance of cow families is that in 1993, cow No. 89 produced the top weaning weight heifer in the herd at 728 pounds. Her 3 year old daughter produced the second top weaning heifer at 714 pounds. Since we have discussed the nutritional and genetic side of our program, let's look at the results of the work in terms of production and marketing. As previously mentioned, we have kept individual performance records through the BCIA program since 1981 at which time our average 205 day weight was 528 pounds on 182 head of calves.