F&R Livestock Resource Spring 2021

F&R LivestockResource

Spring 2021 | Volume 4, Issue 3

Your direct source for livestock news and information

Published by Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Salina, Kansas

In this Issue: 1 Modifying Nature with Nature (Part 1)

Not without controversy, gene editing poses enormous potential to add another tool to a food animal producer’s arsenal. The process also adds complexity to the profitability equation. As “low hanging fruit”, gene editing makes cosmetic changes possible. The possibility to use the technology to eradicate and manage deadly and chronic diseases in animals, as well as change human biologic reactions such as allergies and tissue rejection, is breathtaking.

9 Fundamentals Point to Higher Prices

Beef producers have waited years, survived blizzards, floods, wildfires and now a pandemic to see the pendulum begin to shift toward recovery and profitability in most sectors of the cattle business. Wes Ishmael’s conversation with the ag industry’s most respected economists and analysts forecast a bullish recovery that can begin later in 2021 and continue into 2022.

16 Profiting from Predictability

Registered seedstock producers have had access to genomic testing and expected progeny differences for more than a decade. Commercial cow-calf producers and other sectors of the commercial business were left to rely on the accuracy of the genetics they purchased for use in their cow-calf operations. Today, commercial producers have access to the same genetic testing and are using the tools to make rapid genetic progress in their own operations.

Targeted

23 The New Sixty-Five…Maybe

The cost to raise heifer replacements versus purchasing replacements has been the eternal conundrum in cow-calf production. Although there are many considerations that go into a producer’s final decision, “The New Sixty-Five” discusses the importance of nutrition and optimum weight postweaning and the effects on pregnancy rates.

25 Cool Pigs Running

Do the post-holiday, winter doldrums and extreme cold have you down? Ride along with Hooter McCormick’s latest adventure involving the first-ever International Running of the Pigs to spruce up your day. Wes Ishmael shares the latest from Hooter’s funny world.

Changes Modifying Nature with Nature Gene editing continues to make progress but there are plenty of hurdles to commercialization and adoption.

Part 1

By Wes Ishmael

Imagine adding natural polledness to elite lines of horned breeds of cattle making cattle resistant to pathogens responsible for bovine tuberculosis and bovine respiratory disease, enabling cattle, to thrive in environments previously unsuited or adding carcass yield and tenderness.

All of those and more represent successful or ongoing gene editing research so far. And that’s just considering cattle.

“Editing gives us the ability to make targeted changes in the genome to introduce useful genetic variation, in

Continued on page 4 ________________________________________

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F&R Livestock

From the Editor

Resource

Is It 20/20 Vision or Rose-Colored Glasses?

Volume 4, Issue 3 Spring 2021 Published quarterly by

Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Salina, Kansas 1500 W. Old Hwy 40 Salina, Kansas 67401 785-825-0211 • 785-826-1590 (fax) FandRLive.com

find us on Facebook

Facebook.com/FarmersAndRanchersLivestock/

Owner: Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Mike Samples, Salina, Kansas (785) 826-7884 Editor: Deb Norton, Deb@CogentIdeasInc.com Production Coordinator: Julie Tucker Graphic Designer: Daric Wells Editorial Assistants: Dixie Russell, Dave Cumpton Contributing Editors: Wes Ishmael, Paige Nelson Contributing Artist: Ted Foulkes Sales Jay Carlson Carlson Media Group, LLC (913) 967-9085

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F&R Livestock Resource is published quarterly with mail dates of January 15, March 1, August 15 and October 1 by Farmers & Ranchers Livestock, Salina, Kansas.

Produced by www.CogentIdeasInc.com

By Deb Norton

It’s been a while since “exciting” was an adjective used in a sentence describing the present or near future. At the risk of prematurely suggesting, now is the time that looking forward into the near future and beyond may begin to approach exciting. We may not escape market volatility early in 2021, but later in the year and 2022 are looking pretty bullish for livestock producers.

Just this week, the National Football League announced that every NFL stadium will become a massive vaccination site. States are mobilizing National Guard troops to assist and weekly vaccine distribution to states are increasing by the millions.

Vaccine distribution to supermarket chains offering pharmacy services, Walgreens, CVS, Walmart and big box stores such as Sam’s Club will relieve enormous pressure on hospital systems and healthcare workers by rapidly getting shots in the arms of millions more citizens each week.

The forensic analyses conducted by ag economists, academia and market analysts reveal some shocking data. Even though we all metaphorically felt a tectonic shift of the earth beneath our feet as COVID-19 began to infect a global population at warp speed, the demand for beef remained relatively unchanged. As restaurants closed, the greatest shift in demand was in the cuts of beef.

Consumers had little choice but to

stock their pantries and dine The entire agriculture complex, from at home. Their choice for crops to cattle, have had to keep beef as a center of the plate putting one foot in front of the other protein for their families did not diminish. to keep the food supply functioning Be sure to read “Fundathrough a year not experienced mentals Point to Higher in over a century.

Prices” by Wes Ishmael in this issue of F&R. Ishmael details the pandemic’s impact on 2020 and through the reporting of CattleFax CEO, Randy Blach; Will Sawyer, lead animal protein economist with CoBank; Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University and others, presents a bullish future for livestock production.

The entire agriculture complex, from crops to cattle, have had to keep putting one foot in front of the other to keep the food supply functioning through a year not experienced in over a century. From commodity grain farmers to livestock producers, the system simply did not and cannot cease to function. We often lose sight of the rest of the world not sharing our same challenges yet faced with other challenges equally as catastrophic or deadly.

Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is a sociologist, physician and Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University. In Christakis’ book, “Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live,” he argues that pandemics aren’t new. “What’s happening to us may seem to so many people to be alien and unnatural, but plagues are not new to our species—they’re just new to us.” Christakis goes on to discuss the phases of a pandemic from beginning to post-pandemic recovery and the social response as quarantines and other restrictions begin to relax and vaccinations approach the magic mass of 75% of the population.

Christakis predicts people will seek out extensive social interactions not experienced in our lifetimes. In fact, he compares post pandemic to the “roaring 20s” which occurred after the 1918 flu pandemic.

Assuming Christakis, Blach, Peel, et al., are accurate in their predictions, this wild roller coaster ride to the bottom that seemed never ending may likely turn and race just as rapidly toward a post pandemic recovery few thought possible. Is this a view through rose-colored glasses or forecasting based on the collective data and careful analyses of our own world class economists? Time will tell, but my wager is on the latter.

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Produce Sale Topping Feeder Cattle with Nichols Farms Bulls

Continued from page 1 ________________________________________

a very targeted way,” explains Alison Van Eenennaam, Extension animal genomics and biotechnology specialist at the University of California-Davis (UC-Davis). This was in an Ask the Expert session with the Dairy Cattle Reproductive Council (DCRC) last summer. Besides being a renowned molecular geneticist, Van Eenennaam is an extraordinary communicator of complex information. This series of articles leans heavily on her teaching.

Gene Editing 101

This past November at the Creston Livestock Feeder Sale in Creston, Iowa, our customers cattle brought an average of $61.47 per head higher than the sale average.

Our goal at Nichols Farms the past 69 years has been to create success for our customers. When one figures a bull will likely sire twenty calves a year, with an average breeding life of five years—100 calves sired with an average $61.47 per head bonus creates a $6,147.00 profit! Add in salvage value at $1,500 for this bull, your $7,647.00 lifetime-generated revenue makes a $3,500 to $4,500 bull investment look like a great purchase. Plus, you get impressive Nichols Farms’ sired females from your calf crop for replacements.

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First, some genome basics, which are familiar to many, though perhaps not on the tip of the brain.

Every cell in an animal contains DNA, comprised of smaller units called nucleotides. Genes are segments of DNA, which contain the code for a specific protein. Chromosomes contain genes. All of the chromosomes make up an individual’s genome.

A DNA molecule consists of two strands of nucleotides wound around each other—the double helix that many recognize. Each strand is a chain of nucleotides held together by chemical bonds. There are four different nucleotides in DNA, which vary according to the base: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T); collectively, ACGT. These nucleotides and the sequence of

them provide instructions for assembling proteins, which determines both inheritance and gene expression.

Next, envision these two separate chains of nucleotides lying side by side before they’re twisted together. The nucleotides—one from one strand and one from the other—can form what are called base pairs. Only certain combinations of nucleotides will bond with one another. There are 3 billion based pairs in the cattle genome.

During the course of living, nucleotide strands are under constant natural barrage, with everything from sunlight to alcohol capable of creating a double-stranded break.

Like the busted fence that gets you running, Mother Nature hates these double-stranded breaks and goes about binding them back together, according to Van Eenennaam.

Via what’s called non-homologous end joining, nature guesses about how to splice the DNA back together. If correct, the DNA sequence remains the same. If incorrect, which is common, an extra base pair can be added to or deleted from the DNA sequence.

That mutation may result in the production of a non-functional protein.

These naturally-occurring mutations are the basis for genetic variation used in selective breeding.

“The variations are due to the fact that over evolution, there have

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been double-stranded breaks that were repaired incorrectly and that results in genetic variation. It’s the natural way of evolution. It is not a novel phenomenon,” Van Eenennaam explains in a presentation hosted by the National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium.

Back in the 1950s, plant breeders discovered they could introduce double-strand breaks in random locations throughout the plant genome by intentionally exposing seeds to ionizing radiation.

“They used the resulting variation to select for the plants with the desirable traits they wanted,” Van Eenennaam says. The Ruby Red Grapefruit is an example of a mutagenized line of grapefruit from radiation mutagenesis.

Directing Genomic Breaks and Repair Fast forward to the last 20 years, especially the last decade, armed with maps of various genomes, researchers discovered they could induce double-stranded breaks at precise locations in a genome and could direct how the break was repaired.

This is done with what Van Eenennaam describes as molecular scissors.

They are something called site-directed nuclease. They go by names like Zinc fingers, TALENs and most recently CRISPR-Cas 9. The latter, developed in 2012, revolutionized gene editing technology. These molecular scissors enable making a precise cut in the double-stranded helix, at a precise location.

Van Eenennaam explained during her DCRC visit the CRISPR system

gained popularity because telling the molecular scissors where to cut is driven by what’s called a guide RNA. “You can quite easily alter where the scissors cut by making a strand of RNA. That’s relatively inexpensive and quick to do, so you can explore cutting in different areas. You can do a lot more experiments than you could with older style scissors, which were more of a one-gene, one-scissors kind of combination; it was quite expensive to change gene or locations,” she explains.

Once DNA is cut at a precise location, researchers can direct the repair.

“You can provide what’s called a donor template, which basically is a sequence of DNA that matches either side of the double-stranded break,” Van Eenennaam explains. “So, you can substitute, for example, an allele from

Dir ector of H er d Improv e m e n t.

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one breed, like Angus, into a Holstein to give it a particular characteristic, such as not growing horns.”

Connecting the Dots That’s exactly what Van Eenennaam and her UC-Davis team did, in collaboration with Acceligen, a Recombinetics company.

Researchers made a double-stranded break in the genome of a select Holstein bull, then used a donor template with the polled allele from Angus to make the repair. They cloned two bulls from that animal, which were homozygous polled. Those bulls were bred to horned Hereford cows. All of the calves were polled.

Certainly, you can find polled Holstein cattle, products of natural DNA breaks and repairs over time. They’re few and far between, though, meaning there is a shallower pool of genetics to choose from in selecting for specific performance traits.

“Holstein animals that are homozygous polled with the naturally occurring allele are on average about $150 less in net genetic economic merit value, compared to the homozygous horned animals,” Van Eenennaam explained.

Gene editing in pigs provides another example.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus was first detected in the U.S. in 1987. Pigs that contract the disease have extreme difficulty reproducing, don’t gain weight and have a high mortality rate. In 2015, researchers from the University of Missouri, Kansas State University and Genus plc discovered a protein called CD163, which enabled the virus to infect the pigs. Researchers edited the gene that makes CD163 so the pigs could no longer produce the protein.

“We then infected these pigs and control pigs (with PRRS); the pigs without CD163 never got sick,” explained Kristin Whitworth, a research scientist in MU’s Division of Animal Sciences. Scientists also observed no other changes in the pigs’ development compared to pigs that produce the protein. So, PRRS-resistant pigs.

In each of the previous examples, particular alleles were either knocked out (turned off) or knocked in, at concise points in the animal’s genome. Alleles are one or more alternative forms of a gene that occurs by mutation at the same place on the chromosome.

So far, though, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved only two animals with what it terms intentional genomic alterations (IGA).

Battling Upstream The first was for what are called AquAdvantage salmon (AAS) from AquaBounty Technologies. In simple terms, researchers added a growth page 6 Spring 2021

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Spring Spectacular Catalog Horse Sale Saturday, May 15, 10:00 AM Rope Horse Preview • Friday, May 14, 12:00 Noon Ranch Horse Competition • Friday, May 14, 6:00 PM For More Information, Contact:

Farmers & Ranchers • 785-825-0211 | 785-826-1590 (fax) | www.fandrlive.com Mike Samples, Manager • 785-826-7884 | Kyle Elwood • 785-493-2901

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• • • • • •

page 8 Spring 2021

a source of porcine-based materials to produce human medical products that are free of detectable alpha-gal sugar, according to FDA. For example, GalSafe pigs could potentially be used as a source of medical products, such as the blood-thinning drug heparin, free of detectable alpha-gal sugar. Tissues and organs from GalSafe pigs could potentially address the issue of immune rejection in patients receiving xenotransplants, as alpha-gal sugar is believed to be a cause of rejection in patients.

The federal government’s schizophrenic regulatory approach to approving gene edited products has plenty to do with the dearth of approvals. FDA is the regulatory agency overseeing gene editing in livestock. USDA does the same for plants. Never mind that related regulations vary between countries, from those with little to no added regulation to those embracing the precautionary principle, which basically demands proving zero risk.

“Will gene editing be the next inflection point in terms of our rate of genetic gain?” Van Eenennaam asked participants at the 2019 Beef Improvement Federation research symposium. “Will it be the next method that will enable us to accelerate our rate of genetic gain?”

The next article in this series will examine regulatory hurdles and other challenges in more detail.

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hormone from Chinook salmon to the genome of an Atlantic Salmon, along with a promoter DNA sequence from the ocean pout. The result is Atlantic salmon, which can be grown yearround, salmon that grow significantly faster. That was in 1989. The research took place at the company’s research facility in Canada.

AquaBounty submitted its first regulatory study for a New Animal Drug Application (NADA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2003. FDA gave NADA approval in 2015, but prohibited, “the introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce any food that contains GE salmon.” That included salmon eggs. Part of the prohibition had to do with the lack of labeling regulations. In 2019, FDA deactivated the import alert that prohibited such delivery. So, 16 years and countless dollars since, AquaBounty could transport AquaAdvantage salmon eggs to its farm in Indiana.

More recently, in December last year, FDA approved an IGA in GalSafe pigs for use as food or in human therapeutics. The IGA is intended to eliminate alpha-gal sugar on the surface of the pigs’ cells. People with alpha-gal syndrome (AGS) may have mild to severe allergic reactions to alpha-gal sugar found in red meat.

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Fundamentals Point to Higher Prices

By Wes Ishmael

“What the pandemic left, grain prices will surely take.”

That thought, or one like it, would be understandable, as cattle prices continued to struggle for recovery through the end of the year. But, those prices should be the lowest for several years, according to Randy Blach, CattleFax CEO. “The number of steers and heifers going through our packing plants over the course of the next several years is going to shrink. As it declines, so will our beef production, and prices are going to get higher. We’ll see a transition to a higher trending, more profitable cow-calf operator, feedstock operator and cattle feeder,” Blach explained, at the recent annual International Livestock Forum hosted by Colorado State University and the National Western Stock Show.

Blach used fed cattle slaughter capacity utilization to illustrate how leverage should swing back toward producers. It ranged from 102% in 2016 to 110% last year as cattle numbers ran ahead of hook space.

“We harvested more than 50,000 head of cattle on Saturdays since June. This has been unprecedented.

We’ll bring this (harvest capacity utilization) back into balance over the course of the next two to four years,” Blach says.

CattleFax estimates capacity utilization at 106% in 2020, 103% in 2022, 101% in 2021, 99% in 2024 and 100% in 2025.

“We produce more high-quality beef and consumers continue to say they want more,” Blach said. Since 2000, he noted that beef gained 7% share of total meat spending, away from pork and poultry.

Distribution Alters Value Keep in mind, beef value was disrupted and diluted last year as more demand shifted to retail, away from

IN EVERY ANIMAL

Beef Demand Highest in Decades Turns out, demand was everything.

“Who would have envisioned that beef demand would have been stronger in 2020 than any year in the last 30 years?” Blach asked.

In fact, the Annual U.S. Consumer Beef Demand Index was near 180 in 2020, compared to just over 160 the previous year. That was with record beef, pork and poultry production.

“That speaks to the quality of the product that we’re producing in this country,” Blach says. He explained Prime and Choice beef production increased from approximately 11 to 12 billion lbs. in the early 2000s to around 18 billion lbs. last year.

Along the way, the Choice-Select spread maintained its strong pace, while the spread between Choice and the upper two-thirds of Choice grew. The Prime-Choice spread sagged this year due to the dearth of restaurant business.

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It’s good to know the next generation will do it

BETTER THAN THE LAST!

Outstanding seedstock production is only as good as the people behind the brand. Embracing technology, practicing the best in herd health and nutrition, and maintaining the discipline to expect genetic improvement calf crop after calf crop depends on the integrity of the people behind the brand. At Sandhill Farms, we stake our reputation on both!

We hope you will join us Saturday, March 27, 2021.

Sandhill Farms

HEREFORD PRODUCTION SALE

Saturday, March 27, 2021 • 1 PM SELLING 240 HEAD 120 Registered Polled Hereford Bulls 15 Registered Hereford 5-Year-Old Cows With Heifer Calves 50 Open Commercial Hereford Heifers 35 Open Black Baldy Heifers 5 Open Red Baldy Heifers

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Proven in the pasture by commercial beef producers for seven generations. page 10 Spring 2021

animal protein supply chain,” says Will Sawyer, lead animal protein economist with CoBank. “As the U.S. foodservice sector climbs out of the hole left by 2020, the animal protein sector will not only need to realign itself with the survivors of the last year, but also remain flexible.”

Comparable-store sales at quick-service and fast casual restaurant concepts improved since the summer.

Full-service restaurants, however, continue to face double-digit declines in sales. The report suggests total foodservice sales may not return to pre-pandemic levels until the second half of 2022.

For overall supply perspective, total fed cattle slaughter under federal inspection last year was 32.15 million head, according to USDA’s monthly Livestock Slaughter report. That was 918,000 head fewer (-2.78%) than the previous year. Beef production under federal inspection was 27.15 billion lbs., just 2.5 million lbs. less year over year.

Beef production for 2021 is forecast at 27.19 billion lbs., according to the January World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE). That would be 32 million lbs. more (+0.11%) than in 2020, with higher non-fed cattle slaughter more than offsetting lighter expected cattle carcass weights.

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food service during the pandemic.

“Foodservice sales declined by more than half in April 2020 as cities and states across the country ordered or requested their citizens to stay home. This drove consumers to empty the shelves and meat cases in grocery stores to fill their home pantries. During this time, awayfrom-home food consumption fell to just one-third of total food expenditures—a level not seen in the U.S. since the early 1980s,” according to a recent report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange Division (The Great Grocery Grab…).

The CoBank report explains ground beef performed positively in the limited-service restaurant channels, but the beef sector continues to be hurt by the depressed full-service restaurants, hotels, and education channels.

High-value steaks and roasts primarily sold in these channels only make up a quarter of the volume of beef sold through foodservice but account for nearly half of beef sales. Conversely, ground beef makes up a majority of beef volume through foodservice, but represents only about one-third of the value, due to its low price point.

“Trends in consumer demand for at-home and away-from-home consumption are central to the profitability and viability of the U.S.

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Leachman Spring Sale & Seminar

Ranching Legacy 2030

™

ON LIN E SEMINAR

IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START YOUR LEGACY! Available for viewing at leachman.com or watch on American Rancher, Monday, March 15th.

Every Rancher Will Leave a Legacy

Watch the March 1st seminar at www.leachman.com to learn how to leave a more valuable herd to your children and grandchildren. Lee Leachman shares key strategies that make up the Leachman Ranching Legacy 2030ᵀᴹ plan.

Leachman Spring Bull & Female Sale March 21-22, 2021

All events will be at the Leachman Bull Barn ▪ Fort Collins, Colo.

Our sale events will be restricted to buyers and direct family to ensure your comfort and safety.

Saturday, March 20

All cattle available for inspection.

Come early, pick your lots. Stay for the sales or bid remotely via one of our Leachman Reps or Superior online.

Sunday, March 21 11:30 AM 1:00 PM

Lunch

200 Elite Yearling Heifers Sell

UNC 1 YE ONDI TI AR GUA ONAL RAN TEE

Monday, March 22 10:00 AM

Angus, Red Angus, Charolais & Stabilizers

500 $Profit, Stabilizer Bulls Sell Lunch to be served at the sale.

Watch for more information about our Leachman Private Treaty Grass Time Sale starting April 1st!

Go online to www.leachman.com or call (970) 568-3983 to order your catalog today!

Lee Leachman, Managing Partner Jerrod Watson, Bull Customer Service (303) 827-1156 Wes Minert, Bull Customer Service (970) 568-5685 (970) 568-3983 • www.leachman.com F&R Livestock Resource page 11

Price Outlook As the year wears on, cattle prices should move higher.

WASDE estimated the average five-area direct fed steer price for last year at $108.51/cwt. Fed steer prices for 2021 are projected to be $113 in the first and second quarters, $115 in the third quarter and $120 in the fourth quarter for an annual average of $115.50.

On the other end of the trade, ERS projects the average feeder steer price (750-800 lbs., basis Oklahoma City) at $134/cwt. in the first and second quarters, $139 in the third quarter and $140 in the fourth quarter for an annual average of $136.75.

Early release tables for USDA’s Long-Term Agricultural Baseline Projections are more bullish. They

estimate the average feeder steer price this year at $138.50 and then just over $148 the next two years. Those projections peg the average five-area fed steer price at $114 this year, $120.99 in 2022 and $117.39 in 2023. That’s with the season average corn price projected at $3.60 to $3.65/bu. from now through 2024-25.

About Those Grain Prices

From the middle of December to mid January, spot March Corn futures gained roughly $1.10, trading above $5 for the first time since 2014.

USDA increased the expected season average corn price received by producers by 20¢ in the January

MORE PER HEAD

PERIOD

EFFECT OF SIRE BREED ON SALE PRICE OF BEEF STEER CALVES Superior Livestock Auction, Summer 2020c $157.55e

TM

It’s no wonder the percentage of SimAngus calves marketed through the industry’s largest video auction has grown eightfold since 2010.

TM

$156.77e Average Sale Price ($/cwt)

SimAngus -sired steer calves sold through Superior Livestock Auction in summer 2020 earned more at sale time than all other calves.ab

$155.99de

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a For lots of 50 head or more. b Kansas State University, December 2020, Superior Livestock Auction data analysis of 3,280 lots, 394,900 head of beef calves marketed during summer 2020. (P<.0001) c Lots that qualified for breed-related programs were excluded from the model due to potential confounding effects with sire breed analysis and, for many, few lots in the data. d, e, f Means without a common superscript differ (P<0.05) Lots of calves in breed-identified groups were sired by bulls from the respective breeds and out of dams with no Brahman influence.

SIM_Ad_F&R_7X9_MorePerHead_r1v1.indd 1

page 12 Spring 2021

2/8/21 10:39 AM

WASDE to $4.20/bu.

The U.S. season-average soybean price for 2020-21 was projected 60¢ higher at $11.15/bu. The expected wheat was unchanged at $4.70/bu.

In his late-January Notes and Observations in International Commodity Markets, Guy Allen, senior economist in the International Grains Program at Kansas State University explained some of the reasons for the extraordinary rise in grain prices over the past couple of months. They include everything from iffy weather in South America, leading to Brazil—the world’s largest soybean producer and exporter—lifting import restrictions, to Argentina considering placing a limit on corn and wheat exports, to the rampant grain demand from China.

“With the tightness in forecast U.S. ending stocks, even a small change in supply and demand expectations is going to have a significant impact of prices across agricultural commodities,” Allen says. “Spring planted crops of corn, grain sorghum and soybeans are going to strongly complete for planted area, as spring wheat is likely to be the big loser, given current price relationships. Expect this price volatility to remain with us through the summer months and ahead of the northern hemisphere autumn harvest.”

Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University, says higher feed prices change how beef production occurs, rather than the level of beef production.

“As high feed prices push feedlot cost of gain up, feedlots have an incentive to buy more pounds and place heavier feeder cattle,” Peel explained, in his mid-January weekly market comments. “The change in feedlot demand for light versus heavy weight feeder cattle simultaneously provides incentives for stocker producers to add the needed additional weight to feeder cattle.”

In the meantime, drought remains a pressing question. At the end of January, 62.31% of the continental U.S. ranged from abnormally dry to exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That was 35.62% more than the previous year.

There was little herd liquidation through the end of the year, based on

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Vaccinations Equal Recovery

the Jan. 1 inventory reported by USDA in the semiannual cattle report.

The nation’s beef cow herd began this year with 31.16 million head, which was 181,000 head fewer or 0.58% less than the previous year.

The number of beef heifers retained for replacement of 5.81 million head was 3,200 head more than the previ-

ous year, just 0.06% more.

As of Jan. 1, the calculated number of calves outside feedlots was 25.66 million head, which were 62,000 head fewer (-0.24%) than a year earlier.

The inventory of all cattle and calves was estimated at 93.59 million head, down 198,000 (-0.21%) from a year earlier.

Although COVID-19 is still calling the shots, all signs point toward rapid economic recovery as vaccinations quell the surge and ultimately contain the virus.

“Over the course of the coming year, vaccination is expected to greatly reduce the number of new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. As a result, the extent of social distancing is expected to decline,” according to An Overview of the Economic Outlook: 2021 to 2031 from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). “Real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to return to its pre-pandemic level in mid-2021

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Feeder

page 14 Spring 2021

and to surpass its potential (that is, its maximum sustainable) level in early 2025. In CBO’s projections, the unemployment rate gradually declines through 2026, and the number of people employed returns to its pre-pandemic level in 2024.”

Specifically, the CBO projects domestic real GDP at 3.7% this year, compared to minus 2.5% last year. For 2022-25, projections are for real GDP to range from 2.2% to 2.4%.

Likewise, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its expectations in its World Economic Outlook Update in January. That organization projects the global economy to grow 5.5% this year and 4.2% in 2022.

That assumes containing COVID-19 and its emerging variants, a slowing pace of infections and deaths, as well as voluntary distancing and lockdowns being no more than anticipated.

If so, IMF projects global trade activity to increase about 8% year over year in 2021.

In the meantime, U.S. beef exports through November were beginning to rebound, with volume 6% more than a year earlier and the most since July 2019. Export value climbed 8% yearover-year to $707.5 million. Through November, though, beef exports were 6% lower year-over-year in volume (1.13 million metric tons) and down 7% in value ($6.9 billion).

“Demand for U.S. beef in the global retail sector has been outstanding and we expect this to continue in 2021,” says USMEF President and CEO Dan Halstrom. “Unfortunately, foodservice continues to face COVID-related challenges. We expect a broader foodservice recovery this year, especially from mid-2021, but will likely still see interruptions in some markets.”

“I think we can be optimistic if we look to the spring and summer of this year, as we see a lot more adoption of the vaccine across the United States and around the globe, that things are going to start to pick up and move. These global economies are going to pick up a lot of steam,” Blach said.

Editor’s Note: In addition to his writings for F&R Livestock Resource, Wes Ishmael also writes and produces Cattle Current—a convenient, one-stop glance at daily cattle markets. The website and daily podcast include market highlights. The daily Cattle Current e-mail newsletter includes more detail: Highlights from and links to calf and feeder cattle auctions monitored by Cattle Current; weekly market summary commentary; daily cash grain prices; futures prices for live cattle, feeder cattle, corn and Crude oil (day, previous day and previous week). For more information, visit cattlecurrent.com.

the inception of the American S ince Angus Association Sire Evaluation

Gardiner Angus Ranch

Annual

Production Sale Saturday, April 3, 2021 ∏ 9 AM

Henry & Nan Gardiner Marketing Center at the ranch near Ashland, Kansas

Report in 1980, we have strived to improve our cattle for the traits of economic merit. The first 20 years we worked to correct weaknesses. The last 20 years we have enhanced these traits by building upon strengths. The goals and breeding philosophy at Gardiner Angus Ranch haven’t changed. The acceleration of progress has changed and is enabling us to make rapid, accurate improvements.

This exciting momentum for beef cattle improvement is necessary for our customers to have a greater opportunity for profitability.

1,385 Head

Selling Approximately

as 1,200 Lots

420 Reg. Bulls 300 Reg. Females

Including: 100 2019 Born Donors 32 3-N-1 Pairs 66 Bred Cows 160 Bred Heifers

300 Bred Comm. Females 165 Spring Born Comm.

Pairs (from longtime GAR

customer, Rex McCloy, Morse, TX; calves sired by GAR Ashland and sons of GAR Ashland)

Watch the sale and bid live online at LiveAuctions.tv and SuperiorClickToBid.com. Register to bid prior to sale day by calling (800) 431-4452.

1182 CR Y • Ashland, Kansas 67831 • Office (620) 635-2156 • GAR@GardinerAngus.com • www.GardinerAngus.com The Henry & Nan Gardiner Family • Mark (620) 635-5095 • Greg (620) 635-0233 • Grant (620) 635-0382 • Cole (620) 635-0727 • Ransom (620) 635-0283 Proud to be a founding member of U.S. Premium Beef. More than $10.76 million in premiums and dividends have been paid to GAR customers using USPB delivery rights.

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Profiting from Predictability It’s one thing to believe you have good cattle; genomic testing is giving producers a way to prove it and capture the value of predictable performance.

By Sharla Ishmael

2021 Cattlemen’s Congress

Reserve Champion Pen of Three Gelbvieh Bulls These bulls sell in our upcoming production sale!

14th Annual

Circle S Ranch Production Sale __________________

Everyone knows risk is inherent in the cattle business—whether it’s the weather, the market or some black swan event like BSE or Covid-19— things that are often out of our control.

However, producers are leveraging the power of genomic testing to gain more control over their herd’s performance.

On top of that, more sophisticated buyers who understand what the genetic testing means and how to use it are starting to pay more for those cattle.

Margie Rice of Mayer Ranch in Guymon, Oklahoma, says genomic testing has been a game-changer for this fifth-generation Angus operation.

“My dad, Joe Mayer, really got us into the genomic testing. He’s passed away now and my brother and I run the ranch, but he set us up to go that

Margie Rice

route. We have a big cow-calf operation and we feed our steers out through U.S. Premium Beef. So, we have a registered Angus herd and a

Saturday, April 3, 2021 1:00 p.m. CST • Canton, KS

Offering....65 fall & yearling bulls 5 Gelbvieh show heifers 25 pens of Gelbvieh, Gelford and Gelbvieh influenced open heifers Fall Gelbvieh/Gelbvieh influenced bred heifers First calf Gelbvieh & commercial Gelbvieh influenced heifer pairs

Circle S Ranch

John & Carla Shearer & Family • Canton, Kansas Home 620-628-4621 John Cell 620-654-6507 • Johnny Cell 620-654-6731 Email: circle_s@hometelco.net

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commercial herd. We sell registered and commercial bulls and bred heifers.

“We’ve been using Method Genetics since they came into existence.

Before that we were using the genomic tests the American Angus Association had at that time,” she explains. “We definitely use it to market our animals.

We DNA test all our calves and keep all those records. Then, when we go to sell our bred heifers, we always give the buyers a copy of the information and people are always excited to have that. A lot of our buyers now don’t want to take any animals under a certain ROI (retained ownership income) score, because they’re trying to improve their herd every year as well.”

Having this genetic data, and using it to benchmark individuals within their herd, has allowed Mayer Ranch to set the bar higher each year for the cattle they keep as well as the ones they offer for sale.

“Every year I try to up it a little bit.

For instance, last year I sold anything under like a 240 ROI. Well, this year I moved it up to 250 ROI,” Rice adds.

“So, with our yearling bulls that we sell, we do the same thing. All of our bulls are a higher standard than the bulls we sold last year. Every year we have to up our game a little bit and raise the bar for ourselves; that means our customers also get a higher-end product every time as well.”

As a customer of Method Genetics, Mayer Ranch can also benchmark their herd with other Angus herds in the Method program. Dr. Sally Northcutt, one of Method’s co-founders, explains.

“Benchmarking is not new to the agricultural industry,” she says.

“Now, cattle producers using DNA technology as a tool to characterize genetic value in their herd can seek out benchmarking opportunities. A popular type of benchmarking is to characterize potential replacement heifers against a cattle population. At Method Genetics, we provide benchmark levels for participating cow herds. Producers are able to compare their Method index values and Method EPDs to the genetic merit of the Method Genetics population.

“Genomic testing is becoming more affordable, which is driving increased access to testing in registered and commercial cattle populations,” Northcutt adds. “From a commercial female perspective, the results are helping to establish value for those females in the marketplace based on the industry-relevant traits being measured. The ability to finally objectively measure the genetic merit of commercial replacement females will continue to drive adoption of the technology.”

Dr. Randall Spare is president of the

Ashland Veterinary Center in Ashland, Kansas, and works with many progressive producers like the Mayer Ranch, both as a veterinarian and consultant.

He points out it’s important for producers to find a genomic company that

creates indexes to measure things that are important to you as a producer.

“Many of them come with an index description and it’s important to ask how that index is created and what the goal of that particular index is,” Spare

explains. “Is it to show how animals are going to perform back in the pasture as females, or is that a description of how they’re going to perform in a feedlot setting and then on the rail—or all of the above? So, it’s important for produc-

Trust...

the most important selection tool!

Annual Production Sale March 19, 2021 • 12:30 pm CT

100 - Age-Advantaged Red Angus Bulls, 18-20 months developed on grass 100 - Stout Yearling Bulls (Red Angus & SimAngus) 50 - Fall calving Commercial bred Red Angus heifers safe in calf to Mushrush Red Angus Calving Ease herd sires 80 - Open Yearling Commercial Red Angus heifers - tract scored and ready to breed.

12 - “U Pick Em” Front-end Registered Red Angus Open Heifers

Cattle designed to improve your bottom line, with 40 years of commitment to profitable genetics.

Where the Cow is still Queen!

Visit our Website for Frequent Sale Updates. Call or email for a Catalog!

RANCHES

2346B N Road Strong City, KS 66869 620.273.8581 (Office) 620.340.7461 (Joe) 620.340.9774 (Daniel) redcows@mushrushredangus.com

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F&R Livestock Resource page 19

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ers to understand what their goals are and how that’s being measured.”

In fact, that’s the first question Dr. Spare will ask a client who wants to do genomic testing in their herd.

What are your goals and what do you want to do with the information? If you’re going to invest the $25-$50 per head to do the test, you also need a plan to capture the value of the information. For instance, some producers use the data to cull out the bottom 10% or 20% of their cow herd; others also use it to make better mating decisions; and some who retain ownership

use the data to hit specific targets on the rail—numbers of Prime carcasses, for example. Hopefully, they have a marketing plan to capture added value as well.

“Oftentimes, I help them get started by encouraging them to feed their first set of cattle in the feedyard,” Dr. Spare says. “I say, here’s the place to start; you’ve got to set the foundation. Let’s say they bred all their heifers and they have 15% that are open. I’ll say, ‘If you want to get a little more value out of those, I’ll help you feed them.’ I’ll find a feedyard and we’ll put those together

BULLS to Build Your Herd On Profitability 62nd Annual Sale Marb Carcass

Selling 100 Registered Angus Bulls Monday April 5, 2021 2335 10th Rd Lorraine, KS 67459

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page 20 Spring 2021

Carcass

$Values

EST 1932

Dick & Shelly Ben, Anisha, Elliott & Sophie Dustin, Elizabeth, Cassie, Billy, Annabelle & Jane

with a group of cattle. They’ll have a nice experience.

“And if they bleed all of their heifers, they get pretty excited when they see how many they have out of which sires, right? Then they see which ones are ranked top to bottom for maybe calving ease or how they rank on marbling or ribeye area,” he adds. “If they are working with somebody like Method Genetics, they have indexes we can rank, which animal is going to be more valuable than the other. So, if we know there is $40 or a $100 difference in value of the offspring of those females, one to the next, we multiply that by the number of head they have.

That turns into real dollars, even on small cow herds.”

In fact, count Dr. Spare among the folks who believe there’s actually more opportunity for smaller producers to add value to their herds with testing than others. Smaller herds may be limited on land, the number of cows they can carry or other resources, so each individual animal’s contribution to the herd, or lack of, is weighted more heavily than one cow in a larger herd.

And no matter the size of the herd, he says genomics are helping remove risk.

“It’s no different than a vaccine,” Dr. Spare explains. “We understand the duration of immunity. We understand the antigens we vaccinate for. It gives us a predicted response. We can’t just look at an animal and say ‘This animal will feed out at 1,450 pounds and give us a Prime, Yield Grade 2 carcass.’

With a genomic test, we can’t guarantee that totally, but we can be right in the ballpark. We’re removing risks from owning these cattle, by knowing how they’re going to perform.

“When you add together these four legs of the stool—a herd health program that decreases risk, a nutritional program that meets the needs of those cattle, a temperament guiding program so the cattle are tame, and a genetic program—then every day is going to be a good day,” Dr. Spare says emphatically. “And then we’re more likely to have every ounce of that genetic potential to be expressed at the end of that day.”

One of the obstacles to more widespread adoption of genomic technology is simply education. Rice spends a lot of time talking with buyers and helping them understand what the different values and indexes mean. Some of her customers are already well versed, but others have never heard of something like a ROI score.

“I’ll show them our spreadsheets and how these genetic predictors are showing this particular animal should be really high in marbling or calving ease or whatever,” she explains. “I think at first they might be a little skeptical, but then they buy the bull or the group of heifers and they’ll be

really happy with how they do. So, the next time, they’ll come back and say, ‘Hey, our crop of calves this year was some of the best calves we’ve ever had and we sent them on to the packer and they scored higher. We want to buy bulls from you again—and do you have any bred heifers for sale?’

“It usually takes a couple of years for people to kind of catch on,” Rice says.

“Whenever I’m talking to a buyer, I try to go through it and tell them what it means and what to look for. And, you know, it is kind of tricky because a lot of people are used to seeing EPDs on Angus, and these numbers correlate but they’re different. That’s a completely different set of data. So, something that might be a really great score on an EPD, may not be a great score on the genomic test. It does take

some time to learn what the scale is and what’s good on this test versus another test.”

Despite the learning curve for both buyer and seller, and the additional cost of testing, Rice says it has been well worth it for Mayer Ranch.

“I do think it is something that people need to take a close look at and see how helpful it can be,” she adds.

“Because I really do feel like it’s been a game changer with our ranch and helping us to improve our cattle quality year by year.”

CATTLEMAN’S CHOICE SALE

& Customer Appreciation Celebration!

SATURDAY MARCH 20, 2021

SALE 5 P.M. followed by meal and entertainment by Nashville recording artist

Jason Callahan!

SELLING 60 Bulls & 20 Females

40 Angus & 20 SimAngus - 18-month-old bulls 10 F1 Baldy Heifers - bred for 2021 fall calves 10 Heifer Pairs - calves born Feb. of 2021, sired by SAV Rainfall Sires represented: Angus: Growth Fund ~ Playbook ~ Gold Rush ~ Consensus ~ Bronc Emblazon 999 Simmental: On The Mark ~ Cowboy Cut ~ Exclusive

~ 2020 T Seven Ranch home-raised fed cattle ~ Growth Fund

68% 26% 6% 100%

SCALE HOUSE AND SHRINK SYSTEM TYSON FRESH MEATS, FINNEY COUNTY RUN DATE: 05/26/20 QUALITY GRADING PRIME 75.0 CAB 28.0 CHOICE 7.0 SELECT 0.0 HEIFERETTE 0.0 NOROLL 0.0 OTHER 0.0 TOTAL 110

No ultrasound, no sorting ... just the bottom ½ of our calf crop!

“Best Genetic Value Anywhere!”

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Cattlemen, calves sired by these bulls typically bring $2-$5/100 lb. more at sale time.

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“75 Years of A.I. Represented in These Two Programs” Pictures, video and on-line catalog available at www.tsevenranch.wordpress.com For catalog or information, contact:

Cowboy Cut

T Seven Ranch

G&G Angus

Jerry, Mike & Tim Gilliam (785) 452-1548 ~ Jerry (785) 747-6969 ~ Mike

T. Brad Gilliam (785) 747-7580 ~ cell (316) 734-4869 ~ Aaron Doll

T Seven Ranch Sale Facility •

GREENLEAF, KS • 2211 15th Road

F&R Livestock Resource page 21

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Vermilion Ranch Pat Goggins Family CALL OR CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS www.hydrabeds.com

page 22 Spring 2021

Bob Cook - Records & Sales Cell: 406-670-0078 Jeff Mosher - Vermilion North Brandon Mosher - Pryor Creek

Jake Kading - Herdsman Cell: 406-672-5844 Bill Shaules - South Pryor Greg Roberts - Diamond Ring

PO Box 30758 Billings, MT 59107 Email: bcook@cattleplus.com www.vermilionangus.com

The New Sixty-Five… Maybe Research suggests some replacements heifers can attain lighter target weights without significantly impacting heifer pregnancy rates, calving rates or retention.

By Wes Ishmael

“Replacement heifers are likely some of the most valuable livestock on an operation, as they represent the genetic foundation of the enterprise for several years to come and significant financial investment,” says Justin Waggoner, Kansas State University beef systems specialist at Garden City.

“Producers should consider that the sale of several calves is required to generate sufficient calf revenue to recover the costs associated with purchasing, developing and maintaining heifers.”

In the January Beef Tips newsletter—Heifer Development Program Considerations—Waggoner says, typically, it takes the sale of three to five calves to recover the initial investment and maintenance costs of a replacement female.

“Therefore, it is important to develop and manage replacement heifers in a manner that is sensitive to development costs, reproductive success, and longevity in the herd,” Waggoner says.

“Heifer development programs are developed around two factors: 1) the desired or target weight that heifers will be developed to prior to breeding; 2) the strategy of weight gain used to grow the heifers to the target weight.”

Waggoner explains reproductive development and puberty in heifers is a function of both age and body weight, as expressed relative to the expected mature weight of the heifer. He adds the latter is the primary puberty gauge in production settings.

“This concept was based on the theory that physiological maturity— the point at which consumed energy is directed away from lean tissue deposition toward body reserves—and reproductive maturity occur at about the same point in the animal’s physiological growth curve,” Waggoner explains.

“Historically, it was recommended that heifers be managed to achieve 6065% of their mature bodyweight prior to their first breeding season. More recently, research has demonstrated that developing heifers to achieve lower target weights (approximately 55% of their mature bodyweight) prior to breeding may reduce heifer development costs without significantly impacting heifer pregnancy rates, calving rates or retention.”

Likewise, John Hall writes, “Achiev-

ing a target weight of 65% of mature weight by the beginning of the breeding season ensures nutrition does not limit reproductive success of heifers; however, it appears a target weight of 55% has application for some operations and may have positive effects on heifer longevity.” That’s from Management Considerations in Beef Heifer

F&R Livestock Resource page 23

Development and Puberty from Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice.

Hall conducts applied research at the University of Idaho’s Nancy M. Cummings Research, Extension and Education Center.

Hall’s article is from 2013. At the time, he noted, “The studies supporting the 55% target weight were conducted with crossbred/composite heifers which tended to reach puberty earlier. A follow-up study indicated that developing heifers to 50% mature body weight compared to 55% body weight resulted in similar overall pregnancy rates, but decreased calf weaning weight from 2-year-old cows and delayed calving in 3-year-old cows… Although overall pregnancy rates were not compromised by the

55% target weight, several studies indicated decreased conception early in the breeding season or to artificial insemination.”

Keep in mind these studies are based on Bos Taurus cattle.

Waggoner emphasizes choosing a target development weight for heifers

warrants careful consideration.

“Developing heifers to a lower target weight may reduce development costs, but it may also result in a greater proportion of heifers that are not cycling prior to the breeding season,” Waggoner explains. “Operations that select a lower development target should consider that a greater number of heifers may need to be developed to achieve the desired number of replacement females for the operation.

Conversely, an operation that develops heifers to greater target weights prior to breeding will likely have higher development costs, but a larger proportion of heifers will likely be cycling prior to the breeding season.”

“Another way of thinking about it is that there’s little room for error when developing heifers to a target weight of 55%. Developing them to heavier target weights is more forgiving,” Hall explained.

“Producers should consider the number of replacement females required and the number of potential replacement heifers available for development when selecting a target development weight for replacement heifers,” Waggoner says. “If only a few heifers are required as replacements (i.e. smaller herd) or the number of potential replacements females is limited, selecting a higher development target weight may be advantageous.”

In sum, Hall says, “Consideration must be given to heifer biological type, breeding (purebred vs. crossbred), development costs and marketing options before selecting or recommending a target weight goal.”

How Much Gain and When After deciding the target weight, Waggoner says the next consideration should be the strategy for achieving the desired weight gain prior to breeding.

In the studies Hall cites, there was no impact of the pattern of gain on heifer pregnancy rates. The studies included heifers achieving a target weight via: rapid gain followed by slow gain; steady gain; slow gain followed by rapid gain.

“Therefore, managers can design feeding programs to maximize gain during times of abundant forage, low cost feed supplies, or favorable environmental conditions,” Hall says.

Waggoner notes growing heifers at a relatively constant rate of gain, postweaning, is a common approach.

“Replacement females do not typically need to gain more than 200-400 lbs. of weight postweaning to achieve the target weight, thus only moderate amounts of energy/supplemental feed are required using this strategy,” Waggoner explains. “Heifers may page 24 Spring 2021

also be developed by growing them more rapidly postweaning and then at slower, yet increasing rate closer to the breeding season. The advantage of developing heifers using the this strategy is that a greater proportion of heifers will likely attain puberty and begin cycling earlier due to the greater plane of nutrition. However, the disadvantage of this strategy is that heifers are grown to larger weights early in the development period.

Thus, producers are maintaining a larger animal, with greater nutrient requirements during the development period.”

The other strategy, as Hall mentioned, is growing heifers slowly after weaning and then more rapidly closer to breeding season.

“The primary advantage of this strategy is that a smaller animal, with lower maintenance requirements is fed during the development program, which lowers feed inputs/costs. Producers developing heifers in extensive forage-based systems often use this strategy,” Waggoner explains. “The risk associated with this development strategy is that heifers may not achieve puberty and begin cycling prior to the breeding season if they are unable to gain rapidly enough to achieve the target weight prior to the breeding season.”

“Research has shown that with a good nutritional plan, it is reasonable to expect replacement heifers to reach maturity between 11 and 13 months of age,” explained Bob Larson, K-State veterinarian, in a recent Beef Cattle Institute Cattle Chat podcast. “Heifers that will weigh 1,200 to 1,300 lbs. when they are mature will typically reach puberty by the time they weigh 750 to 850 lbs.”

So, Larson says, that means gain will likely average from 1 to 2 lbs. per day for most replacement heifers at nine months of age.

No matter the gain strategy, Waggoner emphasizes it’s critical for heifers to be developed and maintained on a plan of nutrition that enables them to gain throughout the postweaning period.

“Heifers that lose weight during the development period may achieve puberty, but may cycle erratically or stop cycling. The heifer development strategy employed is often a function of resource availability and thus is affected by drought and weather conditions (cold, wet, winter), which impact feed resources or heifer weight gain. Weight gain and bodyweight of heifers should be evaluated at least 90120 days prior to the breeding season to ensure that heifers will achieve the target weight,” Waggoner says.

Cool Pigs Running

Humor

By Wes Ishmael

There might be something lonelier than a parched Christmas tree the day after the main event, but Peetie Womack had never spied it. Year by year, his postholiday doldrums grew deeper and stayed longer.

Hooter knew that about his friend.

He figured it would be even tougher this year, with some of the usual distractions rescheduled or cancelled altogether. That’s why he started before Thanksgiving to come up with something that might capture Peetie’s attention after the holidays.

It was Lonnie Johnson hounding Delmar Jacobs that ignited the spark for the idea. After the monthly meeting of the Rio Rojo Cattlemen’s Association (RRCA),

at Lonnie’s feed store, where it was always held, Delmar tottered into the office nursing a mug of some concoction or another.

For the umpteenth time, Lonnie was asking Delmar for his hog bait recipe.

Feral hogs coveted the stuff. It looked like shelled corn, maybe a shade brighter, but there was some added ingredient or process that made it foolproof.

“I coul… I couldn… I could… no,” Delmar slurred.

That’s when the tumblers spun into alignment.

Birthing an Event

Dolly Parton may have been the first to famously explain, “It takes a lot of money

to look this cheap.” But it was Hooter McCormick who understood how much work was required to become a pro at the inconsequential.

A few days later, Hooter rounded up the gang and announced: The First International Running of the Pigs Invitational Calcutta.

“The what?”

“Everybody thinks about catching hogs, but nobody ever thinks about letting them go,” Hooter replied.

“Huh?” Hooter’s idea was to trap 15 head or so of wild hogs, let folks choose the pig of their choice—high bid getting first choice

GENEPLUS F&R Livestock Resource page 25

and so on—then turn the pigs loose; the first one out of sight would be the winner.

After prize money, the proceeds would be split between the church’s mission fund and the RRCA political action committee.

“I get the trapping part,” said cousin Charlie, “But why would we be so knot-headed as to let them go again?”

“Because it’s the last thing anyone would think of,” said Hooter.

“Huh?” “Just roll with it,” said Peetie. “Might be fun.”

Soon as the boys heard Peetie was interested, there was no turning back.

“We’ll probably need to build a special trap,” Lonnie ventured.

“That’s a fact,” said Charlie, picking up the drift. “You know, there could be an educational element to all of this. Maybe we build a couple of different traps, see

which works best side-by-side.”

“Now you’re talking,” said Hooter.

If you’re unfamiliar with them, hog traps designed to catch multiple hogs consist of a pen—often made by welding hog panels together—and a spring-latch gate of various designs that allows hogs to enter but not to leave.

“Make sure they have tops on them,” Peetie advised. “We don’t want anything extra getting in, and we don’t want any of them getting out. I swear some of them can climb.”

“And, Delmar, we’ll need some of your special bait.”

“Yo… you… you be…bb… yep.”

“There’s a clearing in one of my pastures that would be perfect,” Peetie said.

“Lots of tracks around, too.”

“I’ll even throw in an old sow for some extra bait,” said Lonnie.

“We’ll call her Miss January,” said Izzy Franklin. “I’ll give you odds right now her trap fills first.”

“And, I’ll give you odds it won’t,” Charlie countered, as side-betting took root.

So it was that the boys occupied Peetie with designing, building, rule-making and bid collecting right through New Year’s Day. By the time the big day rolled around, the boys had 23 hogs, counting Miss January—several sizes, colors and conditions.

They’re Off! By 10:00 a.m. the day of the event, there was a sizeable tailgate party in the brush behind the traps. All in attendance were masked up and properly socially distanced as far as anyone not in attendance knew. With money on the line, this wasn’t going to be some

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half-cocked event, after all.

The boys had four deer stands scattered around the clearing with spotters in each to track the hogs, which had been marked with paintballs. Izzie and Peetie were mounted on four-wheelers, just in case some extra encouragement was needed.

Air horns behind the brush would scream at the appointed time. Charlie would jerk the door on one trap using a chain from behind; Hooter the other.

Stitch Wilson, retired rodeo announcer extraordinaire, provided commentary with a portable P.A. There was all kinds of betting going on: which one would be the last out of sight, how many seconds would it take for the first one to disappear, would it be the fattest or leanest that would win, that kind of thing.

“A spectacle is born,” Hooter said to Charlie, as they prepared to jerk the chains that would open the doors to their respective traps.

“Ladies and gentlemen, take your places,” Wilson announced. “The First International Running of the Pigs is about to begin.” Wild applause. “I’ll remind the spectators that any calcutta participant doing anything to encourage his or her own hog, or to impede the progress of those owned by other contestants will be disqualified.”

The crowd joined in the countdown: “Ten, nine, eight… blast-off!”

Hooter and Charlie jerked the doors open. The air horns wailed. And, nothing happened.

The hogs were interested in the commotion, but not alarmed. It was only a couple seconds, but seemed lots longer.

Never one to place safety ahead of progress of common sense, Hooter instinctively hooked his chain around the panel and then raced to the open door of his trap. He stuck a hand inside and waved. Miss January, Lonnie’s mahogany red, curtain-eared sow charged like she’d seen her worst enemy. Hooter ducked around the side, as the trap-mates stampeded out behind the sow. That got the ones in Charlie’s trap running, too. The crowd was cheering and screaming.

Without realizing it, Hooter had drifted back inside the trap to unhook the chain and release the saloon-style doors, to close it again. Hooter and the bettors nearest his trap realized at about the same time that he wasn’t alone.

Somehow, Miss January had doubled back. Hooter had trapped himself inside with red demon. He was reaching for the chain again when the nonplussed porcine made her initial dash at him, all ears and squeal.

On his first lap around the pen, Hooter spied Charlie doubled over in laughter.

On the second lap, he thought he saw one of the four-wheelers making a beeline to help him. On the third, he was sure he heard Stitch Wilson announce, “And in chute number 2, three-to-one odds on Miss January!”

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