Keeping Records Of Your Animals

Louis Steyl, CEO of the Bonsmara Cattle Breeders’ Society of South Africa, explains the basics of record-keeping, and offers a guideline on how farmers can implement record-keeping processes on their farms.

- Louis Steyl

The success of the Bonsmara breed in South Africa is a result of a carefully devised system that allows for better selection due to more information being available to farmers.

With so many good management programmes available, it’s much easier for the commercial or emerging farmer to record everything happening in his/her herd now than ever before. Keeping records means that a farmer can implement better selection practices when selecting cows to be culled and the heifers to replace them.

If a farmer is serious about having a cowherd that is producing and improving every year, he/she must start keeping records. While every minor detail does not have to be recorded, keeping records of all the ‘big’ events in a cow’s life is crucial.

Before starting a record-keeping system for your herd, there are a couple of management plans that you need to decide on to make sure you are spending your resources in the right areas.

• Herd goals and market plan

You need a goal for your herd and a market plan. This includes deciding what you are planning to sell. For example, are you selling all male animals as weaner calves to the feedlot, or do you want to keep some back to use in a long-term ox system? Do you intend to keep female animals as replacement heifers, or are you planning to grow them out to market them as breeding stock? This will determine the demands of your herd.

• Health plan