How do I know what South Poll cows to cull and when?
Once you’ve established your herd and you’ve gone through a calving season or two, it may be time to consider culling the South Polls (SPs) that don’t align with the genetics you’re wanting for your farm.
For our farm, we prefer to keep to the known traits South Polls are famous for. Heat-tolerance, docility, good mothering, and fly-resistance are specific to our needs.
south Poll heat tolerance
Since we practice regenerative farming, we have no structures for our South Poll herd. We use the natural space of the pastures to give shade and wind breaks when needed. Plus barns promote disease in cattle due to poor ventilation, standing in manure, lack of fresh grass and ability to graze as-needed, among other issues. But even with tree cover, heat-tolerance for the Ohio summers is a necessity. Any South Poll that can’t handle grazing during the mid-day, on the hottest and most humid days are on the docket for potential culls. This isn’t to say they aren’t allowed to rest in the shade during the summer but they must be able to handle the heat and humidity Ohio can throw at them.
One way we look at heat-tolerance genetics is whether they pant or foam at the mouth on these days. Can they manage to keep with the herd when they head to grass? Do they hover over the water trough longer than usual? These are a few ways to find out if your South Poll cow may need culled due to poor heat genetics. We’ve only seen these traits in non-SP cows we’ve had on our farm. Even the lower half percentages seem to gain the heat-tolerance trait.
south Poll docility
Docility for our South Poll herd is a must, including in bulls. Although it’s good practice to handle the herd safely especially during breeding season or calving season. We rarely physically hand our cows, only in rare instances like pregnancy testing. Outside of rotationally grazing everyday, they are corralled and transported to our lease once or twice a year. We need our herd to handle the stress of entering the corral and willingly load onto trailers. This is part, routine and them learning that they are going to fresh food and in part, temperament. On a side note, it’s been interesting to watch our easiest loaders in the herd – the herd bull. He loves going to the lease to be reunited with his South Poll cows.
If your cows struggle with the routine of rotational grazing, they may need to be culled. If after time and routine, yourSouth Poll cows struggle with the hauling process, they may need to be culled.
south Poll good mothering
Of course, this is a must.
Overall, we look for excellent mothering genetics. Easy labors, good mothering instincts, and not allowing other calves to nurse are just a few of these South Poll traits we look for. This rivals in importance for our farm with the docility trait. We want both. Heat-tolerance so far, seems to be a standard of the SP trait and we haven’t had to worry about culling for heat-tolerance yet. Docility, we’ve culled one or two. And good mothering, we’ve had to cull for one or two. But now our SP mothering genetics are exactly where we want them to be.
south Poll fly resistance
A final factor of the traits to look for when culling South Poll cattle, at least at Never Tread, is fly resistance. Seems to be that it’s either clear that the genetic trait has passed on and is expressed or it’s clear it didn’t. This is a trait we do cull for but it’s the last and least important trait for us at this time of writing.
Since we don’t use any pesticides on our herd or on our pastures or through feed or minerals, it’s important to keep this trait in mind while we decide who to keep and who to cull. Flies can and will cause pinkeye. Pinkeye usually resolves itself in healthy cattle given appropriate minerals and a wide variety of fresh food to eat. Sometimes it doesn’t, but it mostly does. That’s another trait to consider – hardiness with disease.
But back to fly resistance. The trait passed on makes the coat oily so the flies do not like to stay on the cows coat, even on their face and eyes. The fly resistance trait is important in the long-term health of your herd to keep down pesky pinkeye every summer.
We hope this quick list is helpful as you determine when and how to go about culling your cows for good genetics.