Stop only picking replacement heifers one time at weaning. Evaluate heifer candidates at five critical phases and let selection pressure identify your herd’s future, writes Wesley Tucker. He asserts that producers continue sacrificing their younger, better-genetic heifers by selecting replacements too early and limiting a more natural selection process over the heifer development timeline.
Rather than picking only once (at weaning), heifer candidates should be evaluated at weaning, pre-breeding tract scores, bull turn in, pregnancy check and before calving. At each phase, selection pressure should be applied, Tucker advises.
Source: MissouriRuralist, June 22, 2026. Link. A heifer development enterprise should be viewed as multiple marketing opportunities to create flexibility in the system and help the producer identify the replacements that will take their herd to the next level for years to come.
If you are going to retain heifers, let’s put enough selection pressure on them to make sure we are only keeping the good ones.” – Wesley Tucker
Related: Are you raising beef or cattle? MissouriRuralist, June 11, 2026. Link. Bryson Byergo says there needs to be a shift from simply “raising cattle” to a “raising beef” philosophy.
INSIGHTS: Tucker’s article provides excellent logic to share with producers looking to retain heifers for herd development, replacement and genetic improvement.
Image: Link.
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