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john grimes

Mythbuster Monday returns with DNA

My family tree is stacked with farmers on both sides, so I feel like I know a thing or two about “producer” DNA. There are some seemingly inherent traits, like reluctance to leave the farm. Not because they don’t want to see the world or meet new people, but rather because it’s difficult to entrust the living, breathing creatures that depend on them to anybody else.

Both sets of grandparents have to leave critters at home for big occasions like a baptism.

So when my parents and my in-laws came down for our new little lady’s baptism last weekend, I know they loved getting out, seeing the countryside and spending time with their kids and grandkids (OK, let’s be honest, the grandkids trump all else), but there was still that nagging feeling that they should be home, working.

That’s the best way I can describe to others what it’s like to be on maternity leave. While I enjoyed every minute (OK, most) of my time home with my three kids and I know everything was under control here, I’m so excited to be back. I love my job and can’t wait to jump into some of the big projects we were working on when I left. One of those had to do with DNA of the bovine variety.

That leads me to my first myth to kick this regular blog feature back into action:

Myth: Using DNA technology in beef cattle selection is only for the rich and curious.

Fact: While the seedstock industry was the first to really embrace this new selection tool, it’s becoming increasingly available and practical for commercial cattlemen. EPDs changed the way ranchers select their animals. Now DNA has been called a “game changer.”

At the Range Beef Cow Symposium in December, Colorado State’s Jack Whittier said:

“There are some opportunities that are coming online to maybe use it in a heifer selection basis at a commercial level, that’s early and I’m not sure that we are far enough along to really understand what opportunities there are but certainly using this is a way to make better bull buying decisions.”

The real game changer, yet to be seen, is being able to make decisions more quickly, to be able to isolate at birth, the gene combinations from a specific set of individuals, then go through the evaluation without having to screen all the non-performers or at least increasing the opportunity to make good decisions early on.”

At that point the GeneMax™ DNA test was still in its development phase, but we’re pretty pumped about its product launch at the National Cattle Industry Convention this week. Finally, this technology is available and practical to the average commercial cattlemen who are using registered Angus bulls. If you’re wondering which potential replacement heifers are keepers or culls, confirmation is as simple as a blood test. Want to add more information to your calves on sale day? Arm buyers with the GeneMax facts.

I’ve been off for three months, so I’ll be brushing up on all the details right along with you. Look for more information on this blog or follow the National Cattle Industry Convention on Facebook or Twitter.

Some of our readers have already got a head start on unwrapping the Nashville convention fun. Congratulations to Brandi Buzzard and Desta Crawford, our Shipping Day challenge winners! Somebody get these two ladies on The Price is Right, because their estimates were almost spot on!

Tomorrow, we will unpack 61 boxes, weighing 1,810 pounds at the NCBA trade show. Brandi was a mere 3.3 off the actual weight with her estimate of 1,813 pounds and three ounces, and Desta guessed 66 boxes — well done, ladies! Each have earned ten tickets into the drawing for an iPad2! If you’re going to be in Nashville this week, make sure to stop by the Angus booth to get yourself entered into the drawing. Hope to see you there!

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

-Miranda

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Progress from small steps

Progress from small steps

Every day is a chance to learn and get better. Thousands of others like my new friends in Alabama are taking steps to meet the shifts in consumer demand, and to know more. Small steps in the right direction can start now. Even if it’s just recording a snapshot of where you are today, a benchmark for tomorrow.

Not perfect, but working to get better

Not perfect, but working to get better

The CAB Cattleman Connection team heard its name called more than once in the virtual ceremonies, and each time came a sense of personal accomplishment, but even better: confirmation that we’re getting better at our craft. I hope that means we’re doing a better job for you.

Beefed up findings

Beefed up findings

Frank Mitloehner presents his findings on the animal ag sector’s impact on global warming. He explains how cattle counterbalance other fossil fuel sectors, proving that cattle are a solution and not a threat.

Miles and miles of Texas

I’m a big fan of “Asleep at the Wheel,” a western swing band that has the sound of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.  I have a CD that I play over and over again while I’m “On the Road.”

“I rode up into Cowtown, the cradle of the west;  just ask any cowboy, he’ll tell you it’s the best”…….

Well, I rode up into Cowtown and attended the Texas Angus Association (TAA) annual meeting, banquet, and “Best of the West” bull sale at the Ft. Worth Stock Show.  What a great time!  I have honorary Texas citizenship, given to me by members of the board of that organization.  I think I have attended these for the past five or six years in a row and the friendships I have developed there have been truly a blessing.

I especially like looking through the bulls in their pens prior to the sale, after studying their genetics in the sale catalog.  Several bulls were what I considered “ideal.”  The right look; the right EPD’s, the right bloodlines; those that would do justice for almost any commercial cowman, no matter what the makeup of their herd (well, within reason!).

I usually pick out five to ten bulls that I really like, and would consider as a herd sire; again, they have to meet what I deem the correct phenotype (because you have to look at them every day) and the correct genetic package.  Two of the bulls that I picked out were the #2 and #3 high-selling bulls of the sale. 

Both fit my set of critera for EPDs; must be CED of +7 or higher; average or higher on marbling and I usually prefer REA in the top 25% of the breed; $ B in the top 10%; scrotal EPD above breed average; milk in line with breed average, give or take a little depending on your feed resources at home.  I also get a little concerned about YW EPD’s getting a little too high, so try to moderate that somewhat, especially if you’re keeping females back from that sire, and good docility scores.  Those things, and the ruggedness, muscle, and feet and leg structure; balance, eye appeal, etc.  For more specific information, you might want to look at our “Best Practices Manual,” cow-calf edition.  You can get one by going to our website at www.cabpartners.com.

CoX Complete X09, a son of Summitcrest Complete sold for $5,000 in the recent Texas Angus Association “Best of the West” bull sale in Fort Worth on Jan.20th.

Lot 50 pretty much fit my criteria.  A two-year old son out of Summitcrest Complete, bred and sold by the Cox Ranch of Peaster, TX, was picked up by Express Angus Ranch of Yukon, OK for  $5,000.  A heavy-muscled, deep sided, rugged individual with the herd sire profile, Lot 50, (or CoX Complete X09, as he himself was named), boased the top adjusted %IMF measure of the sale.  But, he had a LOT of other things to go with that!  His CED was +8; WW of +47; YW of +95, and a Scotal Circumference EPD of +1.1, which is in the top 15% of the breed.  His actual EPD for marbling was +0.94 (top 10%); for REA was +0.61 (top 15%), and $B at $ 84.56, which is in the top 1% of the breed. 

 

Lot #34, a Werner War Party son offered by the MJB Ranch of Weatherford, sold for $4,750 to a rancher from Madisonville, TX to use on his commercial cowherd.  This January 11, 2010 born bull, boasted a +13 CED, is in the top 2% of the Angus breed for marbling EPD and $B.  His REA was + 0.58, in the top 15% of non-parent Angus bulls. He also had a large scrotal EPD of +0.92 (top 25%) and was in the top 20% of the breed for docility.  His milk, at +24, was more than accetpable in my eyes, and he was a long bodied, heavy muscled, stout-made bull that commanded your eye.

Wow, that’s a lot of fun for me.  Maybe I don’t get out enough, but I guess it’s all what you’re interested in. If you like to talk about what your likes and dislikes are when selecting Angus bulls for your commercial cowherd, please feel free to fire away and post them below.

For now, adios!  I’m on the road to McPherson County Feeders at Marquette, KS to visit Manager/Owner Allan Sents and look over the latest set of steers entered in the Kansas Angus Association’s Carcass Data Project!

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Nebraska Ranch Receives Certified Angus Beef Commercial Award

Nebraska Ranch Receives Certified Angus Beef Commercial Award

Troy Anderson, managing a Nebraska ranch, focuses on breeding thriving maternal cows that will grade premium Choice and Prime, while respecting livestock, people and land. Anderson Cattle receives the 2023 CAB Commitment to Excellence Award. Their journey includes improving genetics, feeding home-raised and purchased calves and using data for better breeding decisions, all with a bottom-line approach.

Everything They Have

Everything They Have

Progress is a necessity on the Guide Rock, Nebraska, ranch where Troy Anderson manages a commercial Angus herd, small grower yard, his 10-year-old son, and a testing environment. Troy’s approach includes respect for his livestock, people and land. For that, Anderson Cattle was honored with the CAB 2023 Commercial Commitment to Excellence Award.

Progress, Not Perfection

Progress, Not Perfection

It’s a labor of love, obvious in the way she lights up explaining their family’s 33-year effort to proactively adapt Angus cows to their land. A lifetime of telling stories from the pasture or kitchen has resonated with nonfarm consumers as much as fellow ranchers. “Everything we do is about cattle, but it’s also about family and connecting our kids to the land and to the cattle,” Debbie Lyons-Blythe says.

Shipping day…

It doesn’t mean quite the same thing here at the Certified Angus Beef LLC headquarters as it does at your ranch HQ, but last Friday was shipping day for our team here in Wooster, Ohio.

Similar to the day that calves are loaded on a truck and hauled away, there was a feeling of excitement in the air… or perhaps that was exasperation.

Do we have everything we need? Have we checked the list twice? How many thingamajigs and whatchamacallits went into that box? What else did we forget?

But most importantly: will our precious cargo arrive at it’s intended destination on time? Undamaged? Worth the same amount as it was when it pulled away from our loading dock?

This week, we sighed a breath of relief. Our cargo had arrived at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn., on Monday afternoon. Safe and sound, ready to be unpacked at the 2012 National Cattle Industry Convention.

If you’ve ever retained ownership in a feedlot, I’m guessing you know what comes next… the waiting game. We’re trusting that the warehouse staff in Nashville is taking good care of our cargo, although I’m hoping it doesn’t gain any weight before the next time we see it!

That’s only a short week away, and my anticipation for the nation’s largest cattle industry gathering continues to grow.I can’t wait any longer to get our convention fun started. So I won’t.

Here’s the gig: We’ll be giving away an iPad 2 at our trade show booth next week. If you’re coming to Nashville, you’ll have to stop by #1062 to find out how to enter there. It will involve some packages that are a touch fancier than the ones we shipped. Here’s a little sneak peek ——->  

This is your chance to get a head start on the competition, and for the folks staying at home and on the ranch to get their names in the pot, too.

It’s simple: Take another look at the photos above. Guess how many boxes we sent to Nashville last week and how much they weighed. The closest guess for each number gets their name entered in the iPad 2 drawing. Heck… how about the closest guess gets the first ten entries into the drawing? That sounds nicer… let’s call those ten entries my gift to you.

Leave your guess in the comment section below. Entries will be accepted until Friday, Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. EST.

Isn’t shipping day fun?!

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In Tough Times: Minimize Waste, Maximize Genetics through Management

In Tough Times: Minimize Waste, Maximize Genetics through Management

With drought and high input costs in the balance, it takes sharp management decisions to keep black ink on the bottom line. Knowing what to cut back or keep doing was the focus for Dusty Abney, beef cattle nutritionist for Cargill Animal Nutrition, during his Cattlemen’s College session at the 2023 Cattle Industry Convention.

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Intern returns to branded beef company

By CAB Cattle Crew

It seemed like fate that Emily Krueger would join the Certified Angus Beef ® brand team. She grew up in the brand’s hometown of Wooster, Ohio, and worked on a beef operation there. She’ll graduate from The Ohio State University this June with a BS in agricultural journalism and minors in animal science and psychology.

CAB recruits interns nationwide, and few come from its backyard. But Krueger stood out, winning a spot last summer as a promotions and communications marketing intern, having already secured the spring 2012 position as industry information intern. What’s more, the Ohioan has accepted a full-time post as CAB marketing specialist beginning this summer.

Meanwhile, Krueger is a Collegiate Young Farmers (CYF) president in charge of planning an annual Ohio ag industry tour, and member of Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT). That adds to a resume list of studying natural resource management in Australia, teaching horse riding in Maine and winning last year’s American Farm Bureau Collegiate Discussion Meet.

Working from Columbus, Ohio, this spring semester, she works with the a CAB team of editors in producing technical articles, features and news releases to help producers improve their ability to raise high-quality cattle.

The Certified Angus Beef® brand, founded in 1978, is owned by 30,000 farmer-rancher members of the American Angus Association. It draws on a supply of 15 million Angus-type cattle produced by cattlemen each year across North America. Government graders identify less than one in four of those that meet the brand’s 10 quality specifications. Last year, 15,000 partners worldwide sold more than 800 million pounds of beef.

The not-for-profit company’s mission is to add value to Angus cattle by marketing the original premium brand of fresh beef through its licensed partners.To learn more, visit the consumer website at www.CertifiedAngusBeef.com or the producer site at www.cabcattle.com.

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Raised with Respect™ Cattle Care Campaign Launched This Fall

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Baby, that waterer still works

We were all babies once. Grace permitting and with the help of our parents and friends, we grow into adults. With a few more blessings we have babies of our own and, just possibly, a “grandbaby” (and some day more?).

Our grand moment arrived today in a charming little country called Ireland, where daughter Shea and David Tarrant presented the world with Rory Stephen Tarrant, tippin the scales at 6-11. All fingers and toes and other baby parts are fine, and the wee lad is ready to settle in and establish dominance at home in Cork. We have tickets and backstage pass to meet him in March.

We think about a million things every day, related to our professional and private lives. The stories to edit, the cows to feed and manage so that they all give their calves happy birthdays in the weeks ahead. Of course there is no comparing the events in Cork with those pending in the pens and pastures of Rockytop Farm in Kansas. But I was calving heifers here even before Rory’s mother was born, so this time of year the lines sometimes blur.

We brought 33 heifers home on Rory’s birthday (my sister’s as well) and they’ll begin calving three weeks later on mine. Rory’s mom is famous for, as a three-year-old, auguring half of my tools down a metal standpipe set in concrete in the fenceline where a cattle waterer would go. We fished all but one wrench out, but I can still see her hurrying to toss the last one in as I yelled at her to stop.

Key piece of furniture, marker for a lost wrench…

That waterer is a key piece of corral furniture, though in its second incarnation now. Inner workings refitted last year by Lonnie the pro, and that was the first time a real plumber had adjusted it in 25 years. So all should be good. Just to be sure, I checked two mornings before and although there was a skiff of ice to lift out, that seemed normal for a cold morning and few cattle around. Then I noticed that the switch to the heat element seemed to be in the off position.

So of course I changed that. Now, after heifers were home and just before the trans-Atlantic, transgenerational call, I noticed the waterer is dry but for a little ice. It can’t have anything to do with Shea’s monkey-wrench scamper back then, so did I make a bad call on that faded switch?
Baby it’s cold outside, but this will melt the ice

Had to boil some water … tried to pry the access door open but that baby was stuck. Hot water did it, then a mini-heater for 10 minutes got it going. Turned out the switch call was good, but the system froze down to the valve because (my guess) I had it set for too little water in the tank. Will check it in the morning, or about noon in Ireland.

The waiting is over over there, and just starting here.   –Steve

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Everything They Have

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Progress is a necessity on the Guide Rock, Nebraska, ranch where Troy Anderson manages a commercial Angus herd, small grower yard, his 10-year-old son, and a testing environment. Troy’s approach includes respect for his livestock, people and land. For that, Anderson Cattle was honored with the CAB 2023 Commercial Commitment to Excellence Award.

Making It Better

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Most sane folks don’t choose to go into business with Mother Nature. She’s a fickle and unpredictable partner. So, how did two people with zero agricultural background, no generational land, wealth or genetics carve a profitable partnership with her in Southwest Kansas? By focusing on progress and a desire to leave things better than they found them – which also earned them the CAB Sustainability Award.

The app for that 

Let the countdown continue…. There are only 12 short days until the kickoff of the 2012 National Cattle Industry Convention! If you’ve been to NCBA before, you know what all the Nashville chatter is about — a week of education, good times, networking, fun and beef business.

My excitement for NCBA was elevated last week with the introduction of the official convention smart phone app (Thanks, BEEF Magazine and Pfizer!). What an incredible tool for those attending convention and for folks at home to follow along. If you have a smart phone and haven’t downloaded it yet, take a moment and look into it before Feb. 1. Here’s how:

Depending on what type of phone you have, go to where you purchase apps. In my iPhone’s case, it’s the App Store. For Droid users, it would be the Droid Market. I simply searched for “NCBA,” and it promoptly found what I was looking for:

NCBA12 smartphone app

Click to install the app, and get ready for the nation’s largest cattle industry convention. Tada!

Next, start exploring the home screen “dashboard.” You’ll notice the app has a variety of functions — you can create a personalized schedule for your week in Nashville, look up exhibitors, maps of the convention center, event highlights, check the weather and more: 

Having been to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, I know how handy these maps will be once we get to Nashville. That place is HUGE, and it’s easy to get turned around in if you’re not paying attention. These maps give a great overview of the layout of the convention area — I recommend taking a couple moments to study these in preparation:NCBA12 Convention Map

Here’s a great example of how to personalize your schedule and organize your convention week.

Follow with me here: Go back to the “Dashboard” screen. If you click on “Exhibitors,” then select “All Exhibitors,” you get a listing of all companies who will have trade show booths.

Then, scroll a screen down until you see “American Angus Assn/Angus Productions Inc…..” Click on the little star next to that name:

Good. Now, If you click on that name, it brings up this screen:

See how the “Bookmark” button is yellow? That’s the little star from the previous page working. Now, you can locate us on a map:

Or, you can click “+Schedule” and fill in this information: 

And there you have it… you’ve entered your first event into your personalized NCBA smart phone schedule, and you won’t forget to stop by the booth for the Angus Tweet Up Wednesday night! If you’re new to Twitter or need a little more help navigating this convention app, here’s a great opportunity to get some face time with folks who are happy to share their techie knowledge.

Now, if you go back to the “Dashboard” (There should be an icon in the top left corner to click that allows you to re-trace your steps until you get back home), you can beef up your schedule a little more. Click on “Events,” then click through each category of events. You’ll be able to scroll through all the convention highlights — committee meetings, general sessions, trade show parties and more.

Just like in the exhibitor section, you can just click on the little star to the left to add an event to your schedule:

My NCBA calendar is already filling up fast! For those of you who can’t make it to Nashville this year, I think this is still a great tool to keep up with everything that happens in those four short dates. If you click on “Downloads” from the Dashboard, it looks like once convention is here, you’ll have the ability to save notes, handouts and video clips from the sessions.

Have you downloaded the convention app yet? What features have you discovered? What events are you “starring” already and can’t wait to attend? Looking forward to seeing you there!

Until next time,

-Laura

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A scours change

A scours change

Just like regular maintenance on your vehicle, prevention is the best way to ward off scours in your cow-calf herd. But sometimes the best treatment plans fail, with lasting effects on calf performance. That’s why ranchers should try to get ahead of the problem.

Success breeds success

By Jen Gillespie, Fall 2011 CAB Intern

Here’s a little insight on a group of Southwest Kansas Angus ranchers known for sourcing great replacement females all over the Plains. Veterinarian Randall Spare has a motto – “Success breeds success.” And to run a successful cowherd, he believes in three essentials: nutrition, genetics, and animal health.

Spare chooses bulls that build his herd

“To perform to the greatest degree, you have to make investments in all three things,” he says. “If you have genetics and don’t have good nutrition or good animal health, the genetic potential is not going to be expressed. Just as, using good genetics and good nutrition, if you don’t use good animal health it will not allow cattle to perform like we know they are able.”

These rocks are cornerstones for the Profit Proven group of commercial Angus producers from near Ashland, Kan. The alliance builds on their Gardiner Angus Ranch genetics with the brand promise of their name. As the resident veterinarian, Spare guides their health protocol: “We feel like, for the herds to perform, there has to be a basic animal health program. As a group, we agree on the basic premises, and then each ranch may do things a little bit differently according to their own management style.”

            Those basics:

  1. All cattle BVD-PI free (no Persistently Infected or carriers of Bovine Viral Diarrhea)
  2. All heifers are OCV’ed (Official Calfhood Vaccinated for Brucellosis)
  3. Cattle are vaccinated with Vibrio/Lepto
  4. Cattle are vaccinated with a killed BVD, IBR (protection against BVD and Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis, safe for any herd)
  5. Pregnancy checked within 2 weeks of delivery
  6. Appropriate parasite control prior to shipment

 The end goal is not only allowing cattle to express their full potential, but also making sure they perform down the line. “These ranchers have made the investment in genetics, animal health, and in their nutrition program so when they sell the animals, the next owner is going to be satisfied,” says Spare. “People know that the cattle will perform just like we say they will.”

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Everything They Have

Everything They Have

Progress is a necessity on the Guide Rock, Nebraska, ranch where Troy Anderson manages a commercial Angus herd, small grower yard, his 10-year-old son, and a testing environment. Troy’s approach includes respect for his livestock, people and land. For that, Anderson Cattle was honored with the CAB 2023 Commercial Commitment to Excellence Award.

Making It Better

Making It Better

Most sane folks don’t choose to go into business with Mother Nature. She’s a fickle and unpredictable partner. So, how did two people with zero agricultural background, no generational land, wealth or genetics carve a profitable partnership with her in Southwest Kansas? By focusing on progress and a desire to leave things better than they found them – which also earned them the CAB Sustainability Award.

Reluctant trade

Here’s your Meat Market Minute for this week:

Live cattle trade had not occurred by the time most weekly publications went to press, so you could say it was running late. Packer bids were collected at $118 while feeders were asking $123; analysts expected some trade to occur at or below the last weeks’ values ($121).  Federally inspected harvest was reported at 653,000, much larger than expected given that packers had a significant amount of inventory.

Cutout values were down across all grades, and the spreads narrowed significantly for both CAB/CH (down $1.60/cwt.) and CH/SE (down $3.10). Buyers remain conservative in their purchasing because of downside risk in the market and lackluster demand at the retail case.

CAB production, as measured by acceptance for the first week of January, jumped back above 20% from 19% the week prior when that number had shown its only setback in December. The share of cattle that are Angus type continues to show relative strength especially considering that steers represented more than 64% of the fed-cattle harvest.

Until we meat again,

-David

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Drought Impact and Cattle Industry Dynamics

Drought Impact and Cattle Industry Dynamics

As drought conditions persist across much of cattle country, farmers and ranchers are at a pivotal juncture in the cattle industry’s landscape. What impact does this prolonged dry spell have on the nation’s herd numbers? When will heifer retention begin? How will industry dynamics influence the spring bull sale season?

M&M feedyard

Afraid of freight?

Last week, Paul had the chance to visit with the fine folks at the Idaho Beef Summit in Twin Falls, Idaho. He gave two presentations in two days, titled “A Steak in Your Bottom Line….The Importance of Understanding and Improving Beef Carcass Quality in Your Herd” and “Producing Consumer Acceptable Cattle and Getting Paid For It.”

As you can imagine, his attendees were most interested in that last thought… “and Getting Paid For It.” Every region in the cattle business comes with its own unique set of challenges. In this particular case, many of these Idahoans struggle with market access.

Here was the advice Paul offered to this geographical challenge: Market your own cattle. No one else is going to do it for you. If you don’t think the prices you’re getting are fair, it’s up to you to change it. You might want to start thinking about arranging direct sales to a feedlot, or at least contacting potential bidders before you take them to the sale barn.

Here’s how:

  1. Get to know 3-5 feedlot managers within your acceptable freight distance. Seek out reputable feedlots, ask for recommendations, do some research. Call those feedlots and spend some time talking with the manager. A good place to start looking would be our website, www.CABpartners.com. In the “marketing” section, you can look up CAB-licensed feedlots that we know are focused on feeding high-quality cattle.
  2. Be prepared to tell them about your cattle. Before you make those phone calls, write down the reasons why a feedlot manager should be interested in paying more for your cattle. Think about it like you’re writing a resume for your calves. What are their genetic backgrounds? What kind of health/nutrition program are they on? Are they weaned/pre-conditioned/bunk broke, etc.?
  3. Have data to back it up. If you’ve never had a relationship with your cattle feeder before, this might be difficult the first year, but you have to start somewhere. Can you document and prove why your calves are worth more to a feeder? How do they gain? What is their feedlot health? How do they grade?
  4. Stay in touch. Keep building on that data set and those relationships. Cattle feeder want consistent performance, and they like buying calves they know do well. The more you can prove year after year that your calves can do that, the more secure you are in having the right bids on sale day.
  5. Consider cooperation. Freight costs get even more frightening when you have to foot the bill alone. Do your neighbors have similar cattle? Market them together to make a truck load and split the transport cost. You both win. We’re all in this business together. The more we cooperate, the more we gain.

We detail how to build that calf “resume” on the website (Top the market), but if you have more questions, feel free to email Paul at pdykstra@certifiedangusbeef.com or call him: 330-465-3662.

Until next time,

-Laura

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Yield Grades in Beef (Eins, zwei, drei)

Yes, it’s me again!  Talking about grading of beef carcasses.  To my thousands of followers, thank you for your support!

I’ve spoken about quality grades, i.e. Prime, Choice, Select, etc.  I have spoken about how marbling and maturity are the two items that determine quality grades.  This go-round, I’m going to talk about yield grades.

Yield grading is a little easier to quantify, in my simple, little mind, because we assess a numerical score to beef carcasses…….well, not we, but USDA graders!  They are, simply, yield grades (YG) 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Simplistically, a YG 1 would be a very lean carcass with little outside fat, while a YG 5 would have an extreme amount of subcutaneous fat, or “bark fat” if you prefer to call it that.  A yield grade is an estimate of the amount of closely-trimmed retail cuts that one could expect from a particular carcass.  A YG 1 carcass compared to a YG 4 carcass of the same weight should yield more retail product to sell.

Remember how the grader gets to view the ribeye after it is split open?  Well, not only does the grader get to view the marbling content, but they also get to see how large the ribeye is in square inches (in relationship to its hot carcass weight), and also how much outside (subcutaneous) fat is on the carcass. They do not individually measure them, but in today’s world, the camera does that by capturing a digital image and calculating the YG.

There is a formula that takes into account the following when assigning a yield grade.  They include:

  1. Fat thickness at the 12th/13th rib (this is the starting point, or preliminary yield grade, noted as PYG).  I’ve seen carcasses with 0.05″ and those with 1.5″; but we’d expect most to fall in the range of 0.3″ to 0.8″.
  2. Ribeye area in square inches (as according to the hot carcass weight).  Ribeye area would typically range from 8.0 square inches (extremely small) to 18.0 square inches (extremely large) with most in the 10-16 square inch range.  One would expect, as an animal becomes heavier, the ribeye area would be larger, up to physiological maturity, and it does follow that pattern.  Therefore, the formula below will reflect that the heavier the carcass is, the larger the ribeye SHOULD be.
  3. Kidney, pelvic, and heart fat (fat that is inside the body cavity, noted as KPH and expressed as a percentage of the hot carcass weight).  The range here would be 1.0% up to 5%; most will be 2.5 to 3.5%.  This bears the least on the formula in terms of the final yield grade, but it does figure into the final score.

Example:  Let’s take for instance an 800 lb carcass.  Let’s say, for kicks and giggles, it has 0.80″ of fat cover, and a 14.0 square inch ribeye.  And, the KPH fat is 3.5%.

We plug these figures into the YG formula, which is: 2.5 + (2.5 * fat thickness) + (.2 * %KPH) + (.0038 * hot carcass weight) – (.32 * ribeye area)

So: 2.5 + (2.5 * 0.80) +( 0.2*3.5) + (0.0038*800) – (0.32*14.0) =
(2.5 + 2.0 + 0.7 + 3.04) – 4.48
8.24 – 4.48 = 3.76 yield grade (simply stamped a “YG 3”).

For those of you who are mathemeticians, you might guess that changing some of these figures can greatly affect yield grade.  For instance, if this had been a 725 lb carcass, what would you guess the YG might be? That’s right, 3.475; still stamped a YG 3.  But, let’s take the fat down to 0.5 and now it’s 2.475, or a YG 2.

Why is this important?  In most grid programs, YG 1 and YG 2 carcasses are paid a premium for them. A YG 3 is the “standard” by which MOST grids figure as “par value” on carcass pricing. In other words, there are no premiums or discounts for YG 3’s.  But there are premiums for 1’s and 2’s; conversely, there are discounts for 4’s and 5’s.  And, you guessed it, the discounts for 4’s and 5’s are far larger than the premiums for the 1’s and 2’s.

They can be as little as ten bucks, but can go all the way up to $20 or $25 per cwt on the carcass weight. So that same 800 lb carcass, if it is a YG 4, will get discounted from the par value by $160.  That’s a pretty fair chunk of change, so you need to be careful not to get too many cattle too fat.

Likewise, cattle with small ribeye areas can affect yield grade.  If that 800 lb carcass had a 11.5 square inch ribeye, wth that same 0.80″ of fat thickness, it’s yield grade would calculate to a 4.56, or a “4”.  On the flip side, if it had a much larger ribeye area and less fat thickness, it (the YG) would be lower, numerically.

So, there ya go.  Your primer on quality grade and yield grade in beef cattle, easy as one, two three… or, eins, zwei, drei. I shoulda been a teacher.

Next time, I’m going to discuss some new and exciting DNA testing for yearling gain and marbling as a tool to use in helping select replacement heifers and screen feeder cattle.  Till next time, Adios!  Actually, I should say, auf wiedersehen, since I’m mostly German!  HA!

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