by Kip Karges, Lallemand Animal Nutrition

Spring marks a pivotal time in the cow-calf cycle. Calving is wrapping up, green grass is here, and decisions made now can shape performance well into the next year. While many producers use this season to catch their breath, it’s actually the ideal time to evaluate cow condition, pasture quality and nutrition strategies with herd longevity in mind.

Extending the productive life of cows in the herd is one of the most powerful ways to reduce replacement costs and stabilize herd performance. With heifer development costs rising and market volatility creating uncertainty, every additional calf a cow produces during her productive lifetime improves the operation’s profitability. Today, a replacement heifer ready to breed costs thousands, not including feed, land or labor costs accrued for development. Getting just one or two extra calves from a mature cow can significantly offset that burden.

Nutrition, longevity go hand in hand

Longevity depends on more than age. It relies on maintaining body condition, reproductive efficiency and digestive function. As cows age, especially those grazing native range or lower-quality forages, pasture and forage digestibility is a limiting factor. Cows with worn or missing teeth — along with young cows still shedding baby teeth — face extra challenges processing tough fiber. These animals require thoughtful management to ensure they don’t fall behind.

Now is the time to segment the herd by age and condition, assess body condition scores (BCS), and evaluate each cow’s ability to support lactation and ability to breed back. For older animals and those with low BCS, running a separate group and offering targeted supplementation can be more economical than culling. With calf prices strong, the value of even one healthy calf can outweigh the “hassle factor” of added management.

Evaluate your supplementation program

Matching nutrition resources to cow size is very important in driving overall lifetime productivity. Typically, maintenance accounts for 70% of a cow’s energy requirements, hence the importance for matching cow size to nutritional resources available. Doing an evaluation of this metric based on animal unit equivalent (AUE) is a necessary exercise for each cow-calf operation.¹

Thoughtful supplementation can change the game. High-quality, digestible ingredients may come at a higher cost, but their energy density allows you to do more with less — critical when trying to maintain BCS and fertility without overextending your budget.

How can you tell if your supplementation program is truly working? You can’t see inside the rumen, but you can track practical, observable key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate whether your nutrition and supplementation program is effective.

KPIs to monitor

KPIs to monitor include:

• Pasture and feed digestibility: Evaluate the digestibility of your pasture and feed ingredients, not just crude nutrient levels. Consider rotational grazing and managing animal stocking densities to keep proper forage available and adjust accordingly.

• Support cow digestive function: Along with proper energy, protein and mineral levels, feeding research-proven yeast probiotics within your supplement has shown to improve fiber breakdown and energy capture and yield a high return on investment.^2,3

• Body condition score (BCS): Assess cows to gauge how well they managed calving and whether they have the reserves needed for breeding and gestation. Group cows by age or condition to target specific nutritional needs.

• Breed-back rate: This is a critical measurement, tracking the percentage of cows that have successfully been bred. This metric is driven not just by nutrition, but also by economics and individual operational goals.

• Udder integrity and dental health: Watch for failing udders and broken or missing teeth. These directly affect a cow’s ability to raise a calf and maintain adequate intake. If she can’t eat well or nurse a calf efficiently, longevity is compromised.

• Weaning efficiency: The industry’s goal is to aim for a weaned calf that weighs 50% or more of the cow’s body weight. Falling short could indicate inefficiencies and may prompt a reevaluation of cow size vs. forage availability.

• Total cost = Feed cost + Fixed cow cost: Tracking costs is crucial because calf sales can make up to 90% of operating revenue. Therefore, maximizing calf income is essential for optimizing returns.¹

By tracking these metrics consistently, producers can make more informed decisions about grouping, supplementation and culling. It’s especially helpful when deciding whether to keep older cows a bit longer or invest in replacements.

The role of microbial feed technologies

As forage digestibility becomes increasingly important, investing in research-backed microbial solutions within your nutrition program offers meaningful support to a herd’s digestive systems. Probiotics — live yeast or bacterial microorganisms — actively support rumen function and fiber digestibility, and the immune system. One proven strain of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae CNCM I-1077, has been shown to improve fiber digestibility by 4%–6% (see Fig. 1)³. This means cows can extract more energy from poor-quality forages, helping maintain body condition and milk production.