Note: This site is for reviewing legacy plan of work data from 2007-2011. If you are looking for the current plan of work interface, visit pow.nmsu.edu.
Impact Report
| For plan | Profitable Livestock Production (Catron County) |
| Date | October 29, 2009, 6:29 pm |
| For Objective | Short-term Show short-term objectives |
| Impact Report | Livestock production is Catron County’s largest cash crop. There continues to be pressure on commodity prices for agriculture products at the farm gate. Ranchers must continue to become more efficient to stay profitable. Ranchers must analyze their production strategies and be more conscious of production costs. Implementing more efficient genetics into existing cow herds is one of the areas identified to decrease production costs. This ties in well with the ongoing Artificial Insemination (AI) project in Catron County. Long term beef cattle improvement in Catron County continues to focus on the use of Artificial Insemination (AI). Three producers artificially inseminated more than 85 first calf heifers. The long term goal of the program is to show the use of AI as an alternative management strategy on first calf heifers. The addition of more efficient genetics in the AI program has been an added benefit and speeds up the genetic change in the cow herd. The results of this program have shown that AI can reduce calving problems on first calf heifers as well as improve overall quality, marketability and efficiency of the cow herd. As a result of this long term program I receive more requests each year from producers looking to implement the use of AI in their herds. AI is not always the best choice for a given ranch. In these cases I have worked with the producer to develop a plan to implement high quality sires into their herds in an attempt to duplicate many of the results we have show with AI. |