Cattle Baron Master Business Plan — Herd Performance
Calving percentage, weaning rate, mortality and replacement heifer retention — the parameters that drive every projection in the plan.
Herd Performance
Jump to section
- Overview & contents
- i. Important Notice
- 1. Executive Summary
- 2. A Note on the Name
- 3. The Market and the FMD Crisis
- 4. Foot-and-Mouth Disease as a Business Risk
- 5. The Production System
- 6. Herd Performance
- 7. SWOT and Competitive Position
- 8. Grazing, Land and Water
- 9. Unit Economics
- 10. Route to Market
- 11. The Five-Year Build and Its Gates
- 12. Funding
- 13. People, Security and Stock Theft
- 14. Compliance and Traceability
- 15. Financial Projections
- 16. Break-Even
- 17. Sensitivity and Scenarios
- 18. Risk Management
- 19. Implementation Timeline
- 20. Returns
- 21. Key Performance Indicators
- 22. Key Assumptions
- 23. Conclusion
- A. Appendix A: Consolidated Financial Summary
- B. Appendix B: Capital Schedules
- C. Appendix C: Funding and Debt Schedules
- D. Appendix D: Risk Register
- E. Appendix E: Glossary
|
Assumption |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
Year 4 |
Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Breeding cows at year end |
120 |
170 |
250 |
350 |
450 |
|
Average breeding cows |
120 |
145 |
210 |
300 |
400 |
|
Bulls |
5 |
7 |
10 |
14 |
18 |
|
Calving percentage |
70.0% |
74.0% |
78.0% |
81.0% |
84.0% |
|
Calf mortality to weaning |
8.5% |
7.2% |
6.2% |
5.5% |
5.0% |
|
Weaning percentage |
64.0% |
68.7% |
73.2% |
76.5% |
79.8% |
|
Calves weaned |
77 |
100 |
154 |
230 |
319 |
|
Heifers retained |
48 |
72 |
96 |
118 |
88 |
|
Weaners sold |
29 |
28 |
58 |
112 |
231 |
|
Weaner weight, kg |
218 |
224 |
230 |
236 |
242 |
|
Cows culled |
17 |
22 |
32 |
48 |
64 |
6.1 Where the improvement comes from
|
Driver |
Year 1 |
Year 5 |
How it is achieved |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Calving percentage |
70.0% |
84.0% |
Bull fertility testing before every season; cow condition scoring at mating; culling cows that skip |
|
Calf mortality to weaning |
8.5% |
5.0% |
Calving supervision in a defined window; shelter; parasite and disease control in the first weeks |
|
Weaning percentage |
64.0% |
79.8% |
The product of the two above; the number that actually pays |
|
Weaner weight |
218 kg |
242 kg |
Cow milk production, which follows from cow condition, and grazing quality through the growing season |
|
Heifers retained |
48 |
88 |
310 across five years; the mechanism by which the herd grows without purchase |
The gap between calving and weaning percentage is calf mortality, and it narrows from 6.0 percentage points in Year 1 to 4.2 by Year 5. That narrowing is worth roughly a third of the total weaning improvement and it is entirely a function of supervision during the calving window — which the controlled breeding season makes practical by concentrating it into ninety days rather than spreading it across the year.