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 Herd records are important to both purebred and commercial cattle operations.
Because of the greater individual animal valuation, more complete production
records would be in order for registered herds than for commercial beef opera-
tions. Breeders of purebred cattle are generally expected to maintain a high
standard of herd maintenance procedures since their aim is to produce the kind of
breeding stock the commercial cattlemen need. Pedigrees are important along with
conformation, size (as indicated by weight for age) and soundness, including breed
character, and herd health. More and more emphasis is being placed on the use of
production records for determining which animals to cull from the herd and which
to select as herd replacements. After a few years of records on a herd, the low
producing cows are readily selected for removal and the better cows are retained.
The first basis of culling is reproduction. Any beef cow which fails to produce
a calf each year should be eliminated from the herd immediately.

 Pregnancy may be determined about 90 days after the end of the breeding
 season. An open cow usually is fat at this time and there is no chance of income
 from her for 2 years if kept. Many of the open cows removed from the herd are
 intermittent or irregular breeders. Others may be affected with subclinical in-
 fections which prevent conception. All first exposure heifers should also be
 removed if not settled, as such heifers often remain irregular breeders when re-
 tained.

 Weaning weights and grades of all calves are adjusted to 205 day weights
 and given a relative value which indicates the best and poorest calves by per-
 centage, with 100 as the average for the herd. Calves with high relative values
 are retained and those with low relative values culled. These records are
 credited to each cow (and each bull in single sire herds), so that the ability of
each cow or bull to produce good calves shows dramatically. Such information is
not a normal part of a pedigree nor can it be determined by visual appraisal of
the cow. Cows which consistently produce calves with low relative values are
recognized and sold. These relative value records pertain strictly to the indi-
vidual herd and are of no value for comparing one herd with another.

 A table is presented of actual records from the Everglades Experiment
 Station herd to illustrate the production data on several pairs of cows. These
 pairs of cows have been selected from the same herds in such a way that most of
 their calves were sired by the same bull within each year. Cows in each compari-
 son were maintained on similar levels of nutrition throughout their lifetime and
 are about the same age and weight. In each case one individual of each pair has
 an excellent record of performance as measured by the growth and quality of her
 calves. The other cow shows a lack of ability to produce good calves and should
 be eliminated from the herd.

 The first pair are Angus cows, which weigh:approimately 1000 lbs., were
 raised in the station herd. Their dams were half sisters and their sires were of
 Eileenmere breeding. From visual appearance and pedigree they seem about equal
 but their production record indicate one is a cull and the other a good producing
 cow. It would appear that Cow 1321 "nicked" well with sire 110 in 1962. The word
 "nicking" is a genetic term which means that the offspring of certain matings are
 of a high order of excellence.

 The second pair of cows are 6 years old and are foundation cows of Hereford-
 Angus breeding. Here the poor producing cow is 60 lbs heavier than the other,
 hence, might be selected from appearance and weight. Without a record of the
 calves produced, it is quite probable that both of these cows would remain in the
 herd as long as they produced calves regularly.