COW BEHAVIOR IMPACTS GROUPING STRATEGIES

I once heard a story of a woman who always cut her roasts in half and cooked them in 2 pans. She never questioned the practice. It was what her mother taught her so she always did it that way. Finally, she asked her mother why she cut her roasts in half. Her mother explained that she did not have a roasting pan large enough for a whole roast. I don’t know if the story is true but it’s a good analogy. Sometimes our cow grouping strategies are like that. Maybe cows are still grouped the way they were when they were milked in the parlor. Maybe they are grouped to avoid teaching them to use a robot that they enter from the opposite direction. We all recognize that first calf heifers have different needs because they are producing less and growing more. Recent research makes it clear that they spend their time differently too.* This research may change your mind, or it may reinforce your convictions, depending on how you group your cows today.

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