How do we select replacement heifers for our breeding herd? Age, size, genetics, soundness, longevity potential and pubertal age are all things considered around the country. Ideally, we should select the heifers of adequate size that also reached puberty earlier. They will be ready to breed right away at the beginning of the first breeding season.
Improving Longevity to Increase Profitability
Herd longevity can make or break the profitability of our cow-calf operations, a reality that looms with each breeding season. When heifers conceive earlier in the breeding season, they calve earlier and secure a longer tenure in the herd. This early start directly translates to financial gain, as calves born earlier in the calving season are older and heavier at weaning, resulting in greater profitability.
Achieving this requires heifers to be meticulously managed to achieve puberty with enough time to experience multiple estrous cycles before the start of breeding. Heifers that experience at least one estrous cycle prior to the breeding season significantly outpace those that don’t, exhibiting higher first-season pregnancy rates and lifetime profitability. This is a crucial strategy that begins long before the heifer is even born.
Performance Trace Minerals are the Foundation of a Successful Heifer Development Program
To achieve this, we need to build a heifer development strategy that begins before replacement heifers hit the ground. A solid heifer development feeding strategy will have a generational impact. Nutrition serves as a link from cow to calf, creating a pull-through response —cows receiving quality nutrition will produce stronger, higher performing calves. Feeding Zinpro® Performance Minerals® to beef cows year-round results in heifer calves that handle weaning stress better and reach puberty earlier.
By incorporating Zinpro® Availa® 4 or Zinpro® Availa® Plus into a year-round supplement programs for cow herds, we can create the opportunity for enhanced reproductive performance with conception rates improving by up to 20%. Zinpro is proven to increase the quantity and quality of oocytes available each cycle and improve embryo survivability during the first 45 days of gestation, which is when most pregnancy loss occurs. This reproductive efficiency ensures more quality replacement heifers are born with extra time to develop prior to the first breeding.
These heifer calves reach puberty up to 19 days earlier, giving a larger pool of cycling heifers from which to choose replacements. This extra time allows heifers to experience multiple estrus cycles and breed successfully. When Zinpro Performance Minerals are incorporated into heifer development programs, more heifers retain pregnancies from days 17 to 60 following artificial insemination. These heifers also have better odds of calving during the first 21 days of the calving season. When well-developed heifers calve earlier, there is more time to recover from parturition and experience multiple estrus cycles before breeding back a second time.
In addition to animal performance, a bigger replacement pool gives producers the opportunity to manage for specific traits and make precise decisions that impact the herd’s productivity. With no shortage of well-developed replacements, producers can hone in on additional genetic criteria or observable traits, such as docility or soundness, that can further improve the foundation of the herd and achieve individual business goals.
Partner with Zinpro® to Improve Heifer Development
Take your reproductive and heifer development programs to the next level by prioritizing performance trace mineral nutrition. With Zinpro, you can develop and retain the best heifers to support your cow herd. Connect with a Zinpro beef team member to evaluate your heifer development strategy.
English 
Español de México 
Español 
Português do Brasil 
Polski 
Français 
English