Analysis of the economic value associated with the adoption of beef reproductive technologies

Beef cattle herd improvement to meet growing demand for higher quality beef has been an aspiration within the cattle industry since inception. Throughout the heartland, progressive cow-calf producers invest and adopt research-proven practices striving to continually improve their herds, resulting in premium cattle and beef products. Advantages to modifying management practices and applying advanced genetics could aid modern cow-calf producers by minimizing calf loss, unifying calving windows, increasing weaning weights, raising daily feedlot gains, and improving carcass quality grades. This research evaluates aggregate data from the University of Missouri Thompson Research Center with a focus on realized values of offspring born from 2004 to 2017. By evaluating the difference in aggregate average values of offspring when compared to US averages over time, this research strives to quantify realized added value achieved through the adoption of innovative beef cattle reproductive management practices. The goal of this research is to provide producers suspect of using newer production methods an additional decision aid to measure potential added revenue.by Emma Jane DowningIncludes bibliographical references