Follow closely, I will go slow. X-Bar says weaning weights as a percentage of mature cow weight have not risen. That could very well be true. I do not see in AJ's BIF data anything about weaning weights AS A PERCENTAGE OF MATURE COW WEIGHT. All I read is that weaning weights have not increased in 24 years. Period. If you read carefully, you will see that I merely pointed out that if mature cow weight size has increased over the past 24 years and weaning weight as a percentage of mature cow weight has stayed the same, then resulting weaning weights would have risen. My example: A 1200 pound cow in 1982 weaning 50% of her mature weight would wean a calf weighing 600 pounds. A 1400 pound cow in 2016 weaning 50% of her mature weight would wean a calf weighing 700 pounds. That is an increase in weaning weight. Most comment on this site that our cows are too big, we need to downsize. If our cows are too big, 1400 pounds now compared to 1200 in 1982 for example, and we've not increased our weaning weights correspondingly, those larger cows are only weaning 42% of their mature weight instead of 50%. That's not good, if true industry wide. I'm not debating the validity of the BIF data. I'm saying that if it's correct and our cows are generally larger than they were 24 years ago, our efficiency has regressed. If you add a zero to your 5, that's how many females I have, by the way. Want to buy some?
