Beef Cattle Life History

3.2 Life history

3.2.1 Introduction

Life history refers to the full cycle of an animal’s reproductive and productive herd life. There are many more breeding females and young animals destined for beef production than breeding males. Efficient beef production depends upon three component elements, female reproduction, viability and growth of the young and culled female production. In the production system, the breeding male may be regarded as an overhead.

The reproductive life of an animal is determined by age at puberty (or sexual maturity) and stayability. Age at puberty is the time at which the animal acquires the ability to reproduce offspring and stayability refers to the ability of a breeding animal to remain in the breeding herd. The definition of puberty by precise events in both the male and the female (see Annex) allows for the calculation of age at puberty. In cattle this is between 9 and 15 months of age. But age at puberty is of little practical relevance due to the difficulty to accurately determine the date of these events.

The productive life refers to the period of growth of the young and to the period of fattening of slaughter animals and culled cows. Reproductive and productive lifetimes are influenced by a wide range of genetic, environmental, nutritional and management factors.

3.2.2 Synopsis of life history recording events

Table 3.1. Recording requirements