A Veterinarian's Approach to SPA

Using Cow/Calf Production and Financial Records as a Diagnostic Tool

Abstract

Cow/calf practitioners routinely make recommendations regarding management issues, culling and ration balancing without knowledge of the producer's cost of production. Lack of this information significantly reduces the practitioner's ability to make appropriate recommendations. Just as treating a cow without diagnostic tests, i.e., physical exam and serum chemistries, can lead to inappropriate treatment, management recommendations made without production and financial records can be inappropriate.

Diagnostic tests cannot be interpreted without standard methodology for conducting the tests. The same is true for financial and production records. Standardized Performance Analysis (SPA) guidelines for beef cowherd records were developed in the early 1990s to address these concerns.

Many states have implemented these guidelines into their cow-calf record systems, developed benchmarking databases, and have assisted producers with decision-making processes from these comparisons. Reports from various states suggest major herd economic improvements from this type of outreach activity.

Even with this success, adoption of these recordkeeping systems has been slow. For example, the number of herds in the annual Iowa database for 1999 is 27, compared to 16 herds at its initiation in 1994 and 45 herd at its peak in 1997. With budget concerns, it is increasingly difficult to provide this kind of individualized service through extension.