Official Publication, North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement
Association
October 1996 -- Volume 1, Number 1
MANNING, ND -- North Dakota Beef Cattle Improvement Association members were invited to consign heifer calves to the Dickinson Research Extension Center Heifer Development Project--and they responded with enthusism, according to Dr. Kris Ringwall, DREC director and executive secretary of the NDBCIA. The DREC can handle about 200 heifers in the program.
The program, initiated in the fall of 1993, began with the idea of selling bred heifers at public auction each fall. "But," Ringwall said, "consignors liked the heifers so well that most of them take the bred heifers home and put them back into their herd."
This year, the DREC will begin receiving heifer calves, born between February and May, in mid to late November for the project and will take care of the heifers for one full year. The DREC research team of Ringwall, Keith Helmuth and Gary Ottmar will manage the heifers. Heifers entered are required to be included or be initiated into the Cow Herd Appraisal Performance Software (CHAPS) program. They need to be dehorned and vaccinated at least two weeks before delivery.
"Our health protocol is very specific and very important," Ringwall said. "We want heifer calves that can step right in and become part of a development project immediately. We need to get the heifers growing so then can reach 70 per cent of their project mature body weight by breeding time in the spring."
Ringwall also said the preventive health preconditioning project "is very cost effective when one considers we treat only 13 per cent of the heifers for sickness and had a death loss of .9 per cent." He urged individuals to "bring one or all of their heifers. We will provide guidance if asked."
A $50 entry deposit per animal is required. The deposit will be applied against development costs, which are guaranteed not to exceed $250 plus semen costs for the entire year. A signed entry form certifying health management and conveying heifers as security against development charges is also required.
Heifers are wintered in open, wind board protected, straw bedded, dry lot pens. They are fed in fence line bunks with the ration determined by average daily gain targets. "We periodically adjust the ration based on heifer performance and condition," Ringwall said.
Heifers will be synchronized for a single AI service to the breed and bull of the owner's choice and followed by Red Angus and Black Angus clean up bulls noted for calving ease. Projected calving dates for the heifers is March 1-April 20. Heifers in the test will be measured for pelvic area prior to breeding and also be ultrasound pregnancy diagnosed in early July.
Consignors will be billed quarterly for heifer development costs. A buy-back option is available to owners who consign heifers. "We guaranteed the heifers bred or we will buy those back which are not bred," Ringwall said.
"Herd production records indicate nearly one-third of heifer calves raised in the state are developed for herd replacements," Ringwall said. "The management of replacement heifers can significantly affect lifetime productivity and can be considered the foundation upon which profitable cow herds are built."
 
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