摘要：Producers who depend upon their cow-calf herds astheir primary source of family income are more likely touse certain management practices and are moreproductive than producers whose beef cows are asupplemental source of family income.The USDA's National Animal Health MonitoringSystem (NAHMS) collected data on managementpractices and the importance of cow-calf herds as asource of family income from a representative sample ofcow-calf producers. These producers were from 23 ofthe leading cow-calf states1. Overall, 2,713 producerswith one or more beef cows participated in the NAHMSBeef '97 Study. These producers represented 85.7percent of the United States beef cows (as of January 1,1997) and 77.6 percent of U.S. operations with beefcows.
