How to use wet and dry in continuously mated systems

Wet and dry segregation is a recommended practice to enable culling of unproductive animals by identifying cows that show up as dry in two consecutive musters. Using this strategy can benefit your business by:

• reducing the impact on your pasture by not carrying unproductive animals
• reducing unnecessary supplementation costs
• minimising infrastructure requirements, as an extra paddock is desirable for segregating wet and dry animals but not essential
• tailoring nutritional management to specific groups (if you have an extra paddock) e.g. providing extra supplementation to only the wet animals and not those that are dry.

If you are thinking about using wet and dry segregation as a management tool to help improve your breeder management, the next four steps are for you!

1. Do you have everything you need?

• Tags or bang tailing knife.
  • Ensure tag colours are changed each muster for easy identification between groups.
• Herd recording system of your choice to record numbers of cows that are wet and dry.
  • This could be electronic or old-fashioned pen and paper.
• Two secure paddocks preferably, although can be done with one.

2. First muster

   

• Draft breeders into wet and dry groups
  • Wet
    • lactating
    • noticeable udder
    • likely poorer body condition score
    • may notice a calf at foot.
  • Dry
    • not lactating
    • no noticeable udder
    • better body condition than cows with calves.
  • Tag or bang tail the dry cows.
  • Segregate into separate paddocks if possible for targeted supplementation to nutritional requirements.
  • Wean calves heavier than 120kg.

3. Second muster

• Draft breeders into three groups.
  • Wet
  • Dry
  • Tagged or bang tailed as dry last muster and still dry.
• Tag or bang tail the new dry cows.
• Segregate into separate paddocks if possible for targeted supplementation to nutritional requirements.
• Cull cows that show up as dry in two consecutive musters.
• Wean calves heavier than 120kg.

4. Repeat step 3 at each following muster

Need help getting started?

Talking to a fellow producer who is currently implementing segregation can be a great way to help you apply the above steps to your own system, alternatively you can contact your local beef extension officer for further support.

More information about topics related to breeder management

• How to get the most out of your breeders in Northern Gulf continuous mating systems – factsheet
• Managing the breeder herd: Practical steps to breeding livestock in northern Australia
• Dry season management of a beef business
• Nutritional management of breeders
• Heifer management in northern beef herds
• Managing cow reproduction: an overview
• The perks of pregnancy testing video featuring a south west Queensland producer
• Pregnancy testing: using results