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How to keep the herd

Drought or land competition may limit grazing opportunities, not creativity

 

by Jill J. Dunkel

The drought has eased in places, but it persists in 40% of the U.S. and another 10% could revert if seasonal rains stay away this summer. That outlook from the USDA Drought Monitor has many ranchers short on grazing or water at a crossroads. Do they sell out with hopes of getting back in once the drought subsides? Or do they spend the money to feed and water their cows to preserve the genetics?

“It’s a scenario we’ve heard an awful lot about,” says Vern Anderson, Extension animal scientist at North Dakota State University. “Farmers and ranchers are scrambling for ways to keep their cowherds.”

From there to Texas, weather, feed prices and land values combine to inspire solutions that include drylotting the herd. Although feeding cows everything they eat sounds expensive, Anderson says it can work.

“The bottom line is cows are very adaptable, given a little bit of time. If you feed to meet their nutrient requirements, you can be very creative in what you feed,” he says.

John Perrin, Hereford, Texas, is looking down the barrel of a three-year drought.

“In 2011, I sold almost everything,” he says. “I weaned early. The older cows went to the packer. The younger cows I sold as bred. The only thing I kept was one load of bred heifers, and I kept them in my pens for a while.”

His decision to keep bred replacements instead of young cows was simple – they take up less space and require less feed and water. Using his vertical mixer to grind farm-grown hay with wet distillers grains, Perrin fed the heifers in troughs or on the ground. As time went on, he also grazed failed wheat and milo, as well as CRP ground opened due to drought.

“I was able to keep my genetics without having to start completely over. If you like your genetics, you should like your heifer calves. I knew I was looking at a couple of years before I had a calf crop to sell, but I also figured I was looking at a couple of years before I had grass,” Perrin says.

Sacrificing a small pasture or trap to confine a herd, they could be supplemented like in a drylot, Anderson says. Feed—whatever it is—can be placed in different locations there, and cows still have a little room to roam.

“Cows are very flexible,” he adds. “We’ve looked at a lot of products including distillers grains, wheat, barley malt, sunflower meal, all kinds of screenings. The first time we offered our cows straw for roughage, they turned up their noses at us, but after two days, they decided it wasn’t so bad.

“Meet their requirements in whatever form you can, as cheaply as you can,” Anderson says.

One option is feeding a concentrate ration every other day, and keeping a low-quality roughage available at all times.

“Roughage can be hay, straw, stover, any biomass you have,” Anderson says. “Feeding every other day reduces the labor to feed cows, but it is not infrequent enough to affect the rumen.”

And it has some positive social implications on the cows.

“When we fed every day, the cows would be anxious as soon as the tractor started. But when we fed every other day, we noticed a reduction in the anxiety. It kept them from getting all excited, jostling and trying to get to us.”

Tom Williams, manager of Chappell (Neb.) Feedlot, has fielded calls from producers asking to him to save pen space for cows.

“The grazing season is going to be short this year, and we are prepared to feed cows for customers,” he says. “I tied up way more roughage inventory than usual, and we can feed a silage-based ration. We also have some bigger pens where the cows could get some exercise.”

While pasture resources are short for many, water can be another challenge.

Joe Howard Williamson, Archer City, Texas, embraced new ways to get water to his commercial Angus cows last summer, and he’s ready to do it again if necessary.

“We were slightly understocked, so grass wasn’t the big issue. But we didn’t have the hard rains necessary to run water into our dirt tanks [ponds]. Tanks were low and cows would bog up to their knees or deeper trying to get a drink,” he says.

Like Perrin, Williamson’s creativity let him preserve the herd. He ranches in an area with limited underground water, and local municipalities were unwilling to sell bulk water for livestock consumption.

“I had a fresh spring on one part of the ranch, and I hauled tanker-trucks of water out of the spring into dirt tanks in dry pastures,” he says. Williamson also tapped into a water line that ran through several pastures, placing large, metal water troughs on floats where needed. This gave his cows access to fresh water, and he wasn’t as concerned with cows getting stuck in the mud in his dirt tanks.

He also found other fresh springs just underground on his ranch.

“I was riding through pastures, and I’d find a strip of green grass. One day I decided to dig up one of those areas, and the next day the hole was full of water,” he explains. “We dug out a hole about the size of two pickups and it kept the cows watered in that pasture throughout the summer. It probably wouldn’t water them year-round, but it bought us some time until we received a little rain.”

Williamson said the drought made him look beyond traditional answers and see what resources he might have right under his nose.

“I didn’t want to sell out if at all possible,” he says. “I worked for 20 years to build my Angus genetics in this herd, and I didn’t like the idea of starting over.”

NOTE: North Dakota State University’s publication on drylotting beef cows is available at: www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/beef/as974.pdf

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Looks can tell in beef cattle

Why some apples fall farther from the tree

By Miranda Reiman

“Boy, if he isn’t a spitting image of his grandpa!”

You’ve likely heard similar references before and they make this concept easy to grasp: Just like people,cattle don’t inherit genes equally.“

Because of random assortment and recombination, or crossover events during the sperm or egg cell formation, they can get an unequal proportion of genetic material from their grandparents,” says Bob Weaber, Kansas State University animal scientists.

Thus, an animal might favor its maternal grandfather and look nothing like the paternal one—which matters in cattle herds where sires vary greatly for economically important traits.

That’s just Mother Nature’s mechanism for maintaining genetic diversity in the population. “But from a geneticist’s perspective,” Weaber says, “we’re trying to figure out: Did they get a good assortment of genes or a bad assortment of genes from their parents?”

The question is especially relevant in explaining variation in composite cattle breeds and herds. More than a decade ago, Colorado State University professor Daryl Tatum noticed that variability when looking over the King Ranch’s Santa Gertrud is bulls.

“They all were the same percentage of Brahman and Shorthorn breeding, but there was everything from what looked like straight Shorthorn to ones that looked like a big, old red-colored Brahman,” he says. “If the genes segregated so differently in these populations to where they looked so much different, does it mean their meat quality was different as well?”

So, the curious meat scientist studied it.

Steers of known genotype, either a quarter Braham and three-quarters Hereford or half-and-half, were scored based on appearance to estimate their percentages of each breed.

“We had some all over the spectrum based on phenotype,” Tatum says. The breed estimates for quarter-blood Brahmans came in anywhere from no Brahman influence to 9/16. Looking at the half-bloods,estimates ranged from a quarter to 13/16 Brahman.

“They were highly variable in appearance and we found it was correlated with tenderness,” he says. “At the end of the day, cattle that looked more Brahman produced tougher steaks than the ones that looked like they had less Brahman in them, even though they might have been the same actual percentage.”

In steaks from cattle that appeared to have 1/8 or less Brahman breeding, the Warner-Bratzler shear-force value (the standard mechanical measure of tenderness) was 3.88. That’s compared to a less desirable 4.91 rating for those with more than 50% Brahman influence.

“We don’t have conclusive proof, but perhaps the cattle that looked less Brahman in phenotype actually have genes that are more like the other breed,” Tatum says.

Scientists are anxious to use DNA technology for additional research.

Weaber says variation in the progeny (F2) from two first-cross (F1) animals is more noticeable.

“Where it becomes more complicated is when you breed a hybrid to a hybrid,” he says. “Even though the F2s have half of their genetic material from each breed on average, some re-pairing of chromosomes from the same breed occurs.”

That explains why the heterosis advantage is diminished the second time around, though some will have more and others less than average. Using DNA to identify which ones were truly half-bloods with each chromosome in the pair coming from different breeds would help.

“You could do some pretty interesting things if you had those genotypes,” Weaber says. “You could optimize heterosis through different breeding structures.

”Of course, making sure the genes from both sides of the pedigree are superior is an insurance policy.

“You don’t dig yourself out of the hole just by crossbreeding,” he says. “The merits of the parents going into those systems are important,” especially for traits with moderate to high heritability where heterosis is low. “If you’ve got two parents that you put together, one excels and one does not, the rules of additive genetics suggest you’re likely going to produce an animal that’s somewhere near the middle.”

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DNA: an arriving tool for beef cattle

 

by Miranda Reiman

Right now, it’s hard to imagine how future tools will change the beef cowherd.

Today, heifer development costs are high and getting higher as ranch profit goals demand efficiency while consumers want quality.

DNA technology is one of the emerging solutions for beef production, in line with the role it has played in agronomy.

“It takes so much time to develop a herd of cattle—a lifetime, honestly—that’s designed to be feed-efficient or have high reproduction,” says Cody Jorgensen, of Jorgensen Land and Cattle, Ideal, So. Dak. “The more knowledge you have about DNA to help you make the right decision, the better.”

His family has DNA-tested standout Angus bulls and donor cows for years, but he plans to step it up a notch this fall.

“It’s going to be a tremendous tool to add, along with the quantitative genetic research that we do,” Jorgensen says. And although the registered cattle world will be quicker to use the tool, he says the new lower-density, lower-cost tests “could impact commercial cattle heavily.”

“Data is a power,” he says. “You get a lot of cost and time and energy stuck into a bred female, and every day that it maybe in the wrong group, it’s very expensive. If a guy knew early in a calf’s life if it had the abilities we want, it would definitely improve the costs of raising replacement heifers.”

“Just a few percentage changes in fertility would have a much higher impact in whole-system profitability than most of these carcass measures we’re talking about,” he says.

The Angus breed is working on measuring longevity and survivability currently.

“Once you get data and ways to measure traits like that, then a DNA test is soon to follow,” Bowman says.

Jorgensen dreams of a system similar to what has shaped the crop side of their business.

“If we could genetically select for all the things that challenge us—if that’s the fescue grass or the elevation—if we could understand DNA that could handle that type of environment or that was resistant to respiratory disease—just imagine that. It would be a game changer.”

E. coliresistance. Fertility. Ability to handle “hot” rations. Tests for these traits are all on the horizon.

“Any places we can increase efficiency by selling one more calf, because we have one more fertile female,” Kuehn says, “or have one more calf sold for slaughter because he made it through the feedlot without respiratory disease, or fewer food-borne pathogens are advantageous—those sorts of changes are a boon for the industry in terms of perception and environmental footprint.”

Jorgensen has been pulling DNA samples for their files, “just in case” they want to analyze them.

“It’s not like the poultry or swine business where they can do 2.4 turns per year,” he says.“You just can’t make that much progress in a year’s time. It’s critical to know whether those cattle will do it or not.”

It matters to individual ranchers and to those further down the beef production chain.

“Meat demand is not going down, especially worldwide, Kuehn says. “It’ll take focus if we’re going to keep beef competitive to other protein sources.”

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Weaning with a plan

 

by Miranda Reiman

Children starting school are a lot like calves getting weaned. Each individual is different. For some, the experience is more stressful than for others, but careful preparation by their caretakers can help make the whole experience much more productive.

“Producers need to plan way ahead of the time period when they will start weaning, while also paying attention to their calves throughout the production system,” says Max Irsik, Extension veterinarian at the University of Florida. Watching indicators like the cow condition, range quality and general calf health can help producers decide on the best time to wean.

“At birth it is important that calves have a good mother. The cows need to be healthy, maternal, in good body condition, provide high quality colostrum, and then adequate milk during the suckling period,” he says.

“Prior to separation, calves should be immunized a minimum of one time, preferably two for the clostridial and respiratory diseases, de-horned, de-wormed, castrated and individually identified,” Irsik says. Producers should also get them used to different sights and sounds.

“Being out with the cows, looking at the calves, getting the cows and calves used to being around people, traffic and folks on horseback – all of those things can have an effect later on, helping to reduce stress for both the cow and calf ,” he says.

Once cattlemen have established a target date or time, they need to put a “game plan” in place, says Jeff Heldt, nutritionist for Land O’ Lakes Purina Feed.

“That includes the people – who is going to do what – and the facilities,” he says. Knowing who is going to feed, walk pens and track data is a key.

“Then they need to start thinking about what nutritional package they need to put together,” Heldt says.

Ahead of time, that program should include highly available trace minerals and vitamins, he says. “That gets the immune system primed before the stressful event.”

Getting calves used to eating out of a bunk will increase success, too.

“Depending upon the production system at the ranch, it is helpful to expose calves prior to weaning to automatic watering systems, eating out of a bunk and having access to a highly palatable ration,” Irsik says.

Some producers put out a silage mixture; others offer good-quality, free-choice hay to get them accustomed to a new feed source. Heldt says that probably depends on what the weaning ration will be and the ranch resources.

“It’s got to be highly palatable to drive intake,” he says, “and pretty nutrient dense, because those intakes the first week or 10 days could be very, very low. There also needs to be a balance between highly fermentable energy and roughage, to avoid any digestive upsets or acidosis instances.”

Straight alfalfa, for example, could cause bloat, but mixing that with grass hay might curb the problem.

Heldt says they look for calves to eventually eat 3% to 3.5% of their body weight. Purina sells complete pelleted feeds if roughage is available or texturized feed with roughage built in, to help get calves started and up to that intake target.

“Whatever you use, the main goal is to maintain a performance level of 2.5 pound (lb.) to 3 lb. average daily gain,” he says. “That way the cattle don’t get pushed too hard, but maintain a health and performance status so the feedyard can be successful after that.”

Keeping cattle on the same plane of nutrition between weaning and sending to a feedyard will help preserve beef quality-grade potential later on.

“Looking at it from a feedyard standpoint, that time period is probably as critical as any,” Heldt says, noting that implant strategies are ideally coordinated with the next person down the line.

Irsik points out that a good weaning program probably benefits cow-calf producers more if they’re retaining ownership, but he says it’s the responsible thing to do regardless.

“Even if they feel that they are not getting paid for it, it’s the job of the cow-calf producer to prepare those animals for the next stage of production,” he says.

School teachers appreciate students who come to class with the right supplies and attitude. It makes sense that feeders would want healthy calves that are ready to eat and fit seamlessly into their operations.

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.