CATTLEMEN’S PROFIT ROUNDUP

FEATURE BY LAURA HANDKE

Ahighlight of the annual American Gelbvieh Association Convention, Cattleman’s Profit Roundup, offers information from beef industry thought leaders on new topics and protocols within the sector.

Dr. Jordan Thomas, University of Missouri, who is known for his work in reproduction and timed AI, gave the first presentation of this year’s Roundup event. Thomas shared with the seedstock audience the merits of reproductive technologies and discussed the opportunities an aggressively shortened breeding window holds for keeping costs and the cow herd maximized for efficiency.

“Cow replacement costs are second only to feed costs in the annual cost of keeping a cow,” Thomas told attendees. “But what is causing cow replacement costs to go up?”

Thomas cited a quote that he often reflects upon, “Real benefits come when managers begin to understand the profound difference between cost cutting and eliminating the causes of costs,” to question the beef industry’s opportunity in eliminating the opportunity for cows to cycle out of the herd for fertility issues beyond their first calving.

A concept he calls, “Rational Ranching”, adding that the value of an item in one’s possession always seems more valuable, citing the late breeding or open heifers that many of us, as producers, are tempted to give just one more chance.

Post-calving, the hypothalamus of a cow’s brain slows, taking into consideration all of the environmental and physical stressors her body must be prepared to undergo to successfully raise a calf. A physiological response that slows the return of estrus until that cow’s brain once again assesses estrus as necessary.

Depending on where in the herd reproductive cycle this cow has calved, this delay in the return to estrus can mean an additional 30-day calving window and lighter calves at weaning.

“Which cow falls out of the herd faster,” Thomas asked the audience? “It’s the cow that breeds back on the last day of calving season.”

Thomas asked if, as an industry, we are being as strict as we should be to determine what a heifer has to do to be part of the herd and how we are assessing the true costs associated with cows that are culled for fertility reasons?

“Are we investing in reproductive efficiency and using it as a tool to mitigate risk in other areas of production? As producers, if we aren’t, we should be,” he says.

The goal of any operation should be efficiency and the more efficient and managed the calving season, the easier it is to manage other aspects of the production operation. For example, when the calving season is optimized to fit a shorter window, feed resources can be utilized more efficiently—you’re only feeding one weight of calf and able to tailor directly to those cows’ nutritional needs. For this reason, Thomas suggests front-loading calving distribution. And those decisions start today, he advised.

“Timing this year sets up your herd’s fertility window for next year and gives those cows an opportunity to calve and rebreed in a shorter window,” he says. “I don’t want to pick on the cattle industry, but this is our call to do better. We can do a lot better as an industry.”

Fertility is no stranger to the Gelbvieh breed. Known as some of the best mother cows in the industry, the Gelbvieh cow represents opportunities to improve the herd that begin at breeding—proving that sustainability starts with the Gelbvieh and Gelbvieh influenced cow.

The information that Thomas shared with the audience was a welcome reinforcement of what our Association has known for decades: Females that breed back early in the season and stay in the herd longer are more profitable. In fact, AGA offers a stayability (ST) EPD that predicts the genetic difference, in terms of percent probability, that a bull’s daughters will stay within a herd to at least six years of age.

In addition, and securing the Gelbvieh cow’s place in the sustainability conversation, fertility paired with a smaller cow size maximizes the return on investment a producer sees. Over the past two decades, the breed has worked tirelessly to achieve a maternal-focused, moderate framed cow, a feat the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center data shows was exclusive to the Gelbvieh breed as compared to the four major continental breeds, citing the breed as the only one of the four to reduce mature cow size. Gelbvieh-sired females had the lowest five-year-old cow weight with an average of 1,382 pounds. Achieving a reduced cow-size, while maintaining industryleading fertility, should be attractive to all commercially focused producers. Heifers that reach maturity faster, breed earlier in the season to produce a heavier calf at weaning and stay in the herd season after season are a win for everyone, the industry, the producer, the consumer and the environment.