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Bull Purchase Program
D. Bullock
Department of Animal and Food Sciences
Project Description
A major emphasis of the IRM team has been to obtain software packages for production and economic analyses and encourage the use of these packages by Kentucky beef producers. For herd production analyses, the IRM committee chose CHAPS (Cow Herd Appraisal Performance software, created by NDSU). Data has been used to create a database of Kentucky beef production. Our team has developed a pocket record book to help with collection of data on-farm. The IRM team is also heavily involved in economic enterprise analysis of beef cattle operations. The Iowa State University Standardized Performance Analysis (beef cow business records) package was chosen for economic analyses of beef production systems. The goal is to develop state-wide production and economic databases that we can use to aid in our education. These databases can be used to help demonstrate the “real world” economic impact of incorporating certain beef production practices. We currently have distributed over 450 copies of CHAPS, over 500 cow-calf spa records books, and over 3,000 pocket record books to Kentucky producers.
Impact
The economic impact of this program is difficult to measure because the results of better records is generally reflected in decreased costs instead of increased income. The average herd size of our records participants is approximately 50 head. If we assume a profit per head of $200 and we improve economic efficiency by a modest 5% this would total $225,000 annually with the current users and we are striving to increase numbers.