Cattle Chat: Defining Cow Efficiency Artwork

The Cattle Business Weekly

For cattlemen, by cattlemen is this podcast bringing you the latest in cattle industry headlines straight from the news desk of The Cattle Business Weekly in South Dakota. It's a dose of what's happening in markets, on the ranch and in Washington, D.C. It's news about everything that impacts a cattle operation's bottomline (aka profit). Listen to us in the feed truck, on the way to a cattle sale or on the porch with a beer! We promise you won't go away without having learned something.

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The Cattle Business Weekly

Cattle Chat: Defining Cow Efficiency

February 25, 2026

0:00 | 1:51

When it comes to cow efficiency, beef producers often focus on outputs like weaning weights and pregnancy rates. K-State beef cattle experts recently discussed which performance metrics really matter on a recent Beef Cattle Institute Cattle Chat podcast episode. Researchers defined cow efficiency as the relationship between feed intake and pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed, a metric that directly affects profitability. However, beef cattle nutritionist Phillip Lancaster suggested accurately measuring that relationship remains a challenge — especially when forage intake is involved. “We as researchers need to work on these math equations to make...

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