For small cow-calf producers looking for help on how to get ahead, the people at UF’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences have a beneficial program: the UF/IFAS Florida Heifer Development Program. The aims of the program are to show smaller cow-calf producers how to use the latest reproductive research ‘best practices’ to realize increased profits.
Started by UF/IFAS Extension director for Holmes County Kalyn Waters and animal sciences Professor Cliff Lamb, who is also the assistant director with the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Marianna, the program utilizes key principles to increase productivity:
- Healthier heifers produce healthier calves, with fewer complications, more productivity and for a longer span of time. Heifer health can be improved through superior nutrition and reproductive management in the first two years of a heifer’s life.
- Calves born earlier in the year weigh more on market selling day, thus selling for more because calves are paid for per pound. Using more efficient heifer development techniques—such as artificial insemination—can move up the average birth date of a producer’s calves, thus increasing the sale price of a ranch’s calves.
- Artificial insemination benefits heifer health, such as through lengthening a heifer’s reproductive years, in addition to improving calf weight.
The program is aimed at allowing smaller producers who likely don’t have the resources and facilities to use heifer development techniques based on research. For more information, click here.
Griffin Fertilizer is committed to helping both growers and ranchers make sound agronomic and economic decisions in order to maximize the health of their grove and pasture. As a full-service custom dry & liquid fertilizer blender and crop protection product distributor, we will continue our mission to further advance Florida agriculture.
For questions or concerns about your farm or pasture, contact us and one of our team will be in touch.