Splitsal

A common situation in extensive herds is that the sale of stock from one age cohort can be spread over two separate time periods up to one year apart, with the first draft of steers or heifers going when they reach the target weight and the second a year or season later, e.g. some of the bullocks may go at three and a half years, and the balance at four and a half.

Producers will usually have some idea, based on experience, of what proportion they expect to get off at the earlier weight and the average turnoff weights at each age.

But what happens when growth is improved such as by pasture development, a reduced stocking rate, supplementation or genetic improvement? The Splitsal workbook can be used to consider the approximate change in the proportion turned off from a mob of cattle under such circumstances.

The Splitsal workbook can be used to:

• predict the effect of increased growth on proportions turned off at each age in a split turnoff and
• estimate average turnoff weights at each age for both growth patterns.

There are no links between the Splitsal program and any other Breedcow and Dynama program although sale weights can be manually transferred to Breedcow+ and Dynama+.