In this final week of the year we're reviewing the top five stories from the Beef Producer site in 2017.

The second-most-read post was "Consider the no-depreciation cow-calf operation," from June 22.

In this article we introduced the unique information that cow depreciation is not straight-line depreciation as most economists and the IRS would have us believe.

Instead, it is actually a bell-shaped curve that includes a period of appreciation at the front of a cow's life as she grows from heifer to a producing cow. Then comes a period of relatively stable valuation around 4 to 6 years old, then a period of rapid depreciation.

The article also included important ideas from Oklahoma producer and marketing teacher Wally Olson about how to use this knowledge to make more profit.

Read the story at this link.

Here's a related story about how these ideas can help you profit on heifers in declining markets.