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Tag: beef research

Just a poor ol’ farmer…

September 16, 2011

Top five ways to continue to get better on the ranch

I very distinctly remember the rare occasions in my childhood when mom would pack her bags, say goodbye and leave my brother, sister, dad and I home to fend for ourselves. As a vet tech in town, she would head back to trade school for a week every couple of years for continuing education.

I had no idea what “continuing education” meant at the time. All I knew was that it meant we got a week running around the countryside barefoot, free of baths, eating ice cream (it helped dad’s burnt cooking go down smoother), and generally being little hooligans as dad tried to maintain some level of productivity on the farm.

I remember asking dad why he never had to go back to school. Always a jokester, he would say something to the extent of, “Oh, I’m just a poor ol’ farmer, I don’t need to know much. Your mother’s the one with the brains around here!”

Of course as I got older, I understood exactly how much he really was joking about the first part of that humble statement (although my mother would stand by the latter comment!). He had to know everything about everything… from bovine health and reproduction to monitoring water quality and soil pH balance to how to handy-man any mechanical problem that ailed him.

I was reminded of all this by a tweet Andy Vance shared from the Select Sires National Sales Conference last week. He quoted Dr. Tom Fields, NCBA’s executive director of producer education:

Well… ya. A simple statement, but perhaps an under appreciated one. To stay in business, cattlemen have to be business and technology savvy, up-to-date on current issues and markets and open to new ideas. Otherwise, they simply wouldn’t keep up.

But unlike other professions, cattlemen aren’t required to pursue continuing education to maintain certification, seek a pay raise or stay qualified for general ranch management. It’s up to each guy or gal to keep ahead, and it behooves their profitability to do so. But, like maintaining order amongst three young kids while mom’s away, it’s not always an easy task to accomplish while keeping a farm or ranch running.

So to keep up with Dr. Field’s thoughts, here is our advice for staying on the profit-savvy end of the cattle business. Your top five sources of continuing education in the beef biz:

1) Attend conferences, seminars and industry events: I know it’s hard to get away, but events like these are worth the trip to town. Whether it’s your state cattlemen’s meetings, Feeding Quality Forums, field days, extension-sponsored meetings or the National Cattle Industry Convention, these will be the places to pick up the latest and greatest technology and ideas in the beef business. I’ve read the evaluation reports after conferences and seminars like these, and I know cattlemen like you walk away from them with useful, applicable new knowledge that positively changes the way they do business. Take time to attend at least one each year.

2) Seek consultants: Conferences, seminars and meetings bring industry experts to a central location and put a microphone in front of them, but you don’t always have to travel to find them. Experts can be found all around you, so seek their knowledge out. Make the most of your time with the vet, sit next to the extension beef specialist at your kid’s next 4-H meeting, ask your neighbor how he keeps flies under control so well each spring. Give your breed association field reps a call or look up our CAB beef cattle specialists and just ask them what is new in those organizations. These people are being paid to be a resource to you, so make the most of them!

3) State feeding programs/data collection: We all know the old saying, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Recording and processing detailed, individual data on your herd may be one of the most useful educational tools you can use. After establishing a solid herd record keeping system, you might think about getting post-harvest information. The best way to give that a try might be to look into a state feeding program to get your feet wet. The folks who organize these will be an incredible resource in explaining your first set of harvest data and then making a plan to improve it for the next year.

4) Reading/researching: That stack of agriculture magazines that pile up next to your chair (ahem!) have useful information in them! But that pile can be overwhelming. Select the 2-3 publications that you find most useful and cancel the rest. Then you can focus on reading articles that are most pertinent to your success. Utilize reliable online resources to seek specific information or research findings. Or take the plunge into the social media world and follow only people and organizations that share information directed toward your needs.

5) On-farm trials: Wondering about the effect a certain management change might have on your ranch? Run a little research trial of your own. It doesn’t have to be complicated. For example, if you’re debating a new implant strategy, run a trial on a small group and track the difference in their progress before you make changes with the whole herd. Nothing like the process of trial and error to teach yourself on what works best on your ranch!

As Gary discussed earlier this week, the cattle business is entering into a new era. How do you stay on top of the game at your farm/ranch? What resources are most valuable to your continuing education?

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cutting a steak

Beef demand demands taste

June 1, 2011

If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times: People eat beef because it tastes great. 
 

We know that beef is an important part of a healthy, nutrient rich diet. But the fact of the matter is, we’re willing to pay more (130% more than chicken; 29% more than pork, in fact) for beef because we love how it tastes.

We love the simplicity of throwing a steak on the grill. We relish in a great steak’s ability to stand on its own: no need for special marinades, rubs or long preparation. Great steaks shun ketchup-abusers, and chef and grillmaster gloat in compliments on their expertise while watching the meat sizzle over hot coals. Steak-lovers have a fascination with our product that is based on all these sensory factors.

But if we fail at delivering that incredible product, even once, those former steak lovers will never forget. Case in point: ever had a terribly tough, dry steak at a restaurant? Ever go back to that restaurant for steak again? Didn’t think so. Ever had one of those less-than-stimulating eating experiences and wondered, *gulp,* what if that steak came from my ranch? Continue reading “Beef demand demands taste”

Four ways to marry implants and quality goals

March 15, 2011

In a perfect world, cattle growth promotants would improve increase marbling, too. Short of that, feeders can strike a balance between grade and gain, implant and marbling levels. Here are four of the top ways:

1) Delay implanting until full feed

“It’s almost become standard operating procedure around here,” says Robbi Pritchard, of South Dakota State University (SDSU). His team divided 650-pound (lb.) steers into non-implanted, estradiol-trenbolone acetate (TBA) implant at the start or TBA implant at 850 lb.

“If you impede marbling on the front end, you may permanently affect quality grade,” Pritchard says of the work.

Implanting increased hot carcass weight under both strategies, but the delay resulted in a 15% increase in cattle reaching the premium Choice or higher.

SDSU now waits until final diet before implanting calves, and that increases average gains by 20%.

“If they’re eating enough to gain 4.5 lb. per day, that boost is .9 lb.,” Pritchard says. “When they’re only gaining 1.5 lb. per day, in their first week, it’s only a 0.15-lb. improvement. That’s when it pulls grade out of them: when the implant is going full-tilt and the calories aren’t there.”

Agri Beef Co. adopted the strategy at its four feedlots from Washington to Kansas to improve grade.

Scott Lindsay, Agri Beef livestock division president, says the increase in quality came without a significant impact on performance, but he was surprised by other benefits.

“We cut our number of bullers way back and cattle appeared to come on feed a lot better,” he says. “The cattle just didn’t seem to get as stressed, and we didn’t have to use as many meds.”

Trial and error says to do it when cattle are on full feed. “If we said we wanted to do it on day 20 and we were in between rations, it didn’t seem to work as well,” Lindsay says.

3)   Repetition matters, but fewer not always best

Top factor in both performance and marbling score? “Total dosage of hormone used,” Reinhardt says.

Splitting a high-dose implant may beat giving it all at once, especially if that’s on arrival. “That would fly in the face of the theory that one implant is better than two for marbling score,” he admits.

For support, an SDSU trial compared cattle given a six-pellet implant on Day 1 to those given a two-pellet implant every 40 days.

“You’ll end up with the same performance and you don’t do as much damage to quality grade by spreading it out,” Pritchard says. Although that’s probably an extreme example, splitting an implant is doable.

A 2005 Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB) analysis looked at the effect number of implants had on brand acceptance rates. Going from none to one dropped Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) qualifiers from 37% to 19.1%, but those with two implants actually had a higher rate at 21.2%. Cattle implanted three times, however, were the lowest graders at 16.7% CAB.

“Most feedlot will give two implants, and that’s fine if the one on the front end is a lower dose like a Revelor-IS® or Component-TE-IS®,” says Gary Fike beef cattle specialist with CAB.

angus heifers

4)   Fit it to nutrition, type  

“Going for quality grade, the most important thing is to never have an implant dosage that exceeds what the caloric intake can support at any stage of production,” Pritchard says.

That’s why many feeders say their better cattle aren’t hurt as much by a higher potency implant.

“If those cattle are eating well and charging the feedbunk every day, and you’re giving them calories well in excess of maintenance, that leaves plenty of calories to help them grow and deposit marbling,” Fike says.

The most aggressive strategy should be reserved for small-frame, slow-growing cattle, he adds.

“As you increase aggressiveness of implant, you’ll increase frame size,” Pritchard says. “An overweight is a horrific penalty, so you’ll want to decrease potency if you’re looking at that limit.”

 

These rules of thumb come down to balance. “We don’t use a high dose implant,” Lindsay says. “We know we have to be competitive, but the end product to the consumer is very important to us.”

That’s as it should be, Tatum says. “Great taste remains the primary reason consumers often make beef their food of choice,” he says. “The goal is to take advantage of the benefits of growth enhancement without detriment to beef demand.”

 

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The genetic effect

Over time, selection for beef quality makes a difference

By Miranda Reiman

Genetic change in the cattle business is a slow and steady process, but evidence shows it’s happening, and that it’s positive for beef quality.

A recent research review notes, “Quantifying the genetic impact is difficult, but it is definitely a factor in the trend toward higher quality grade.”

That paper, written by Larry Corah and Mark McCully of Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), examines the factors that have driven quality grades up, ending a 30-year decline. By this summer 60.1% of cattle in the nation’s harvest mix were grading Choice, a 7.5-percentage-point leap in just two years.

Scientists estimate 1 to 1.5 points can be directly traced to the increased use of Angus genetics, an improvement in that breed’s natural marbling ability and a boost in the number of cattle that show Angus influence.

Sally Northcutt, genetic research director for the American Angus Association, says the breed has focused on marbling.

“When you look at the genetic trend for marbling from the 1980s to now, we see about a third of a marbling score improvement,” she says. At 0.26 by mid-2009, the marbling EPD (expected progeny difference) for Angus bulls had moved up 9 points in a decade (Figure 1), after taking 25 years to move that far since its inception.

“We’ve had a huge progression of the selection tools to allow us to place pressure on marbling,” Northcutt says. The Association has more than 85,000 carcass and a million ultrasound measures to evaluate each week.

“It’s not enough with Angus breeders to just have the cattle. They like to characterize those cattle for different traits,” she says. “Marbling is definitely a key player in trait selection and breeding programs. That funnels through to their customers.”

The Angus customer base has been steadily building, too.

According to a 1995 survey, 39% of all bulls used that year were Angus. By 2008, that number was 55%, and 70% of producers said they used at least some Angus bulls.

“The breed has inherently good quality and produces very desirable marbling genetics,” Northcutt says.

Data from Iowa’s Tri-county Steer Carcass Futurity (TCSCF), which tracks breed makeup, shows the impact of selection. Barely half of the black-hided cattle with less than a quarter Angus genetics in the TCSCF database graded Choice. That’s compared to those with three-quarters Angus breeding , which went 86.2% Choice and Prime. Certified Angus Beef ® (CAB®) qualifiers more than tripled as Angus makeup increased (Figure 2).

Northcutt says that effect is amplified today: “We’ve moved beyond just supplying herd sires with a quality impact.” She says retaining females builds ever more Angus influence into producers’ cowherds.

From 2000 to 2008, there was a 12-point jump in the share of black-hided cattle in the U.S. harvest mix, from 48% to 60%. TCSCF data helps explain the trend, showing an 18-point advantage in the percentage of Choice or higher grade from black-hided cattle compared to their non-black contemporaries.

All of that combines for a partial explanation of the beef quality grade surge.

To read “Quality Grade: What is driving the recent upswing?” in its entirety, visit https://cabcattle.com/about/research

Getting a handle on beef flavor

$200,000 from multiple sources awarded for beef marbling research

 

by Miranda Reiman

Any good business manager knows success lies in repeat customers. The beef industry follows that model and annually invests millions of dollars in research to help ensure satisfied consumers. 

“Beef is known for taste. If we forget that we lose a huge price advantage to competing proteins,” says Glen Dolezal, Cargill Meat Solutions. “Whatever we do in the industry—whether pre-harvest or post-harvest—we’ve got to be sure beef continues to perform to consumers’ expectations for taste and tenderness.”

Dolezal chairs the beef industry’s Joint Product Enhancement Committee. During the 2009 fiscal year, the 50-person committee received nearly $1 million of Beef Checkoff monies from the Beef Promotion Operating Committee. Those dollars are used to support research that will have an impact on the entire industry.

One of the projects, spearheaded by Stephen Smith of Texas A & M University, aims to create more of those loyal beef customers.

Smith, along with colleagues at the University of Idaho and Texas Tech University, submitted the proposal titled, “Regulation of Marbling Development in Beef Cattle by Specific Fatty Acids.”

The project will use three different models to uncover how fat is deposited both inside and outside the muscle.

“In a nutshell, we’re trying to figure out how to improve quality grade and yield grade simultaneously by understanding the development of fat,” says Matt Doumit, University of Idaho meat scientist. “We’re looking at the effects of fatty acids on the differentiation of fat cells from intramuscular fat depots – which give rise to marbling – as well as those from subcutaneous fat.”

Dolezal says this project has his committee’s backing because it “dovetails nicely” with their overall goals.

“Anything we can do to put more taste fat inside the muscle and less waste fat outside, that is positive for beef consumption, diet health, taste and tenderness,” he says.

Smith says recording the results have far-reaching effects.

“There is no question that the primary fatty acid in beef, oleic acid, increases as marbling increases in beef,” he says. “The research will document if we can also increase the concentrations of other fatty acids with documented health benefits in well marbled beef.  This will increase consumer perception and acceptance of beef as a natural source of protein, vitamins, and healthful fatty acids.”

The trials will “take three different approaches to the same problem,” says Doumit. His work will focus on the precursor cells, or pre-adipocytes, to see whether certain fatty acids prefer internal or external fat.

Texas Tech’s Brad Johnson will look at “going from a muscle satellite cell, or specialized muscle cell, and how it converts to intramuscular fat or marbling,” Doumit says.

Smith will study mature fat cells at different growth stages.

“This is a time when it’s difficult for the cattle industry because the price of feed is high and the price of beef is not, so anything the industry can do to improve efficiency and still maintain product quality is a benefit,” Doumit says.

The joint committee places emphasis on taste and tenderness, Dolezal says, “Because we feel strongly that we can’t sacrifice that and still preserve, much less increase, long-term beef demand.”

The American Angus Association’s Research Priorities Committee set similar goals last fall, and sought financial support from its nonprofit affiliate Angus Foundation.

“Marbling and quality of end product surfaced in our priority list,” says Milford Jenkins, Foundation president. “If we can help our Angus seedstock and commercial producers enhance their profitably through utilization of Angus genetics, then we believe it’s a win-win-win.”

That’s why the Foundation pledged $50,000 in supplemental funding to allow the scientists to also research how vitamins A and D affect fat deposition.

“We’re able to make this level of investment because of generous charitable contributions to the Angus Foundation by breeders, allied industry interests and friends of the breed,” Jenkins says.

The Foundation’s ambitious Vision of Value: Campaign for Angus is working to raise $11 million by December 31, 2011, with funds going toward youth, education and research.

Doumit says the work will add to the level of understanding and could result in applicable management strategies later on.

“There have been some feeding trials and people trying to look at the effects of these vitamins, but we really don’t have a good understanding at the cellular level,” he says.

National Beef Quality Audit numbers quantify the magnitude of quality and yield grade challenges.

“It’s about a $1.3-billion problem for the industry by not having the optimum yield and quality grade distributions,” he says.

Both are “heavily influenced” by fat deposition, Doumit says, so understanding how that happens at different places within the animal is critical to improving beef palatability and cutability.

Initial results may be published by summer 2010.