18 minute read
ASSOCIATION BRIEF
DELARM JOINS IBBA STAFF
Callie DeLarm of Floresville, Texas, has joined the International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) staff as Registry and Records Technician. In addition to assisting members with general registration and data input operations, she will provide support in processing DNA test results.
“DeLarm has a solid cattle background. She worked on ranches, while attending Sul Ross State University and has spent time in a feedlot as well. She graduated with honors in under three years with a bachelor’s degree in animal science. Her real-world experience coupled with her solid training in science, makes her a very good fit with IBBA,” states Darrell Wilkes, IBBA executive vice president.
SOUTHEAST BRANGUS BREEDERS REPORT
The winner for the Southeast Brangus Breeders Association (SBBA) 2021 Award of Excellence went to Jeff Thomas of JRT Brangus, from Cumming, Georgia. Thomas has spent his entire life in the cattle business, being mentored by his grandfather and father. During his tenure as a journeyman in cattle business, he converted his herd to a registered Brangus operation. Along his journey, he has joined and remained active in the IBBA, and is currently serving on the SBBA Board of Directors and as the SBBA Sales Chairman.
Lawrence “Larry” Fitzgerald is the winner of the SBBA 2021 Achievement Award. After graduating from Mississippi State, Fitzgerald has managed cattle operations across the country and spent 15 years at the Poplarville, Mississippi, Extension office. As a testament to the extent of his influence and impact in the cattle industry, T3 Brangus, Spur S Cattle, JM Cattle Company, and Gulf Haven Brangus, all collectively nominated him for the SBBA Achievement Award and are still listening to and continue to seek his council.
If you would like to nominate someone for the SBBA 2022 Award of Excellence, the SBBA 2022 Achievement Award, or someone to be considered for the SBBA Hall of Fame, please contact, Janet Greuel at janet.greuel@gmail. com or in writing to 438 Price Rd., Brooks, Georgia 30205, nominations are due in July 2022.
The SBBA Board of Directors Meeting will be held on January 21, 2022, at 12:00 p.m. CST, and the SBBA General Membership Meeting will be held on January 22, 2022, at 8:00 a.m. CST at Southern Cattle Company located at 4226 Hwy 231, Marianna, FL 32446.
If you would like to find out more information about the SBBA please do not hesitate to get in touch with Michael Childers at 904-219-8746 or email at sebrangus@hotmail. com or visit our webpage sebrangus.com or on Facebook at Southeast Brangus Breeders Association page for the latest information and updates.
JOE CAVENDER ANNOUNCES THE ADDITION OF MARK COWAN TO CDP TEAM
Cavender-Draggin’ M and Partners (CDP) are pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Cowan as CDP President. Duties will include assisting in the budgeting, marketing, and development of the CDP brand while expanding the scope and reach of their marketing and breeding program.
“We are delighted to add Mark Cowan to the CDP team,” remarks Joe Cavender, owner of Cavender Ranches. “His knowledge and experience in the Brangus and Charolais breeds, marketing on a large scale, and building quality programs while increasing output will be invaluable in the future with CDP.”
Cavender-Draggin’ M and Partners combine vast experience coupled with the desire to make each successive generation just a little bit better. The visionaries involved have created a program based on performance, comparative data and testing that breeds cattle for today and tomorrow – in real time. CDP is taking bold steps towards the future, with unparalleled service post-sale, marketing assistance, calf buyback programs, and always answering your call. CDP is here to be more than just your genetic supplier. We are the new brand standard of excellence and your go-to resource for navigating this fast moving and ever-changing industry.
Cowan most recently has been a partner in American Marketing Service, the premier Brangus sale management firm. He was also formerly the president of Camp Cooley Ranch, which grew to become the third largest seedstock operation in the United States involved in the Brangus, Charolais, and Angus breeds, marketing over 2,000 bulls per year.
“I look forward to working with Cowan again and,
together, propelling the CDP partnership and the cattle we produce and market to new heights. Our relationship and teamwork are a proven commodity and one based on success,” says Craig Green, longtime sales and marketing expert at Camp Cooley Ranch, GENETRUST, and now CDP. According to Cowan, “I am excited about this new opportunity and the challenge of continuing the growth and development of the CDP brand as they build on their past success and expand their market both in quality and numbers.”
Press release courtesy of Cavender-Draggin’ M and Partners Brangus.
CONGRATULATIONS TO HEPTINSTALL FAMILY
Congratulations to IBBA Director Chris Heptinstall and wife, Alexis, on the addition of their second daughter, Joan Jameson Heptinstall. Joan arrived on December 2, 2021 at 5:03 p.m., weighing 8 lb. 8 oz. Joan joins big sister Vivian Rose. Congratulations Heptinstall family!
TEXAS CATTLE FEEDERS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT OF CEO
After 36 years serving the Texas Cattle Feeders Association (TCFA), CEO Ross Wilson is set to retire on December 31, 2021. Wilson will move into an advisory role in early 2022 as recommended by the TCFA executive committee and voted on at the association’s board meeting in September 2021. Ben Weinheimer, TCFA vice president, will be promoted to CEO.
TEXAS BEEF COUNCIL RELEASES PROGRAM EVALUATIONS DETAILING KEY SUCCESSES IN 2021
AUSTIN, Texas (Dec. 7, 2021) – During board meetings in late November, the Texas Beef Council (TBC) approved and released its FY2021 program evaluations, giving Texas beef producers the opportunity to see how their Beef Checkoff dollars were used to stimulate beef demand throughout that 12-month period.
“Texas producers deserve and expect full transparency about the activities and initiatives their Beef Checkoff dollars are funding,” said Molly McAdams, TBC’s executive vice president. “We want to get that information to producers as quickly as possible. By reviewing these program evaluations, they can learn about last year’s Beef Checkoff investment results now, then see our full annual report and financials when they become available in early 2022.”
Full TBC program evaluations can be viewed online and include the following significant achievements in FY2021: • Generated 74 million views and 1.6 million clicks from BBQuest and “For All Plates of Life” advertising campaigns. • Shared Chief Recipe Officer Eddie Jackson’s content, including beef recipe videos, social media content, audio advertisements and photography, achieving 47 million views and 393,000 clicks. • Implemented social media advertising to help Beef Loving Texans content reach more than one million clicks and 2.5 million video views, increasing engagement by 7% in 2021. • Executed retail promotions that targeted over 1,600 retail stores and distributed over 275,000 coupons. • Grew the Beef Loving Chefs influencer database by 68% to include 2,500 foodservice professionals, 900 Instagram followers and 2,200 monthly newsletter recipients. • Used direct messaging to reach over 550 doctors, 500 nurses and 230 nurse practitioners and physician assistants in 650 medical offices in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston. • Generated 7,578 Beef Team activations (race participation, volunteerism, continuing education and team challenges) despite COVID-19 limitations. • Presented the MyPlate toolkit and free beef resources like the Raw Truth About Beef to over 135 teachers at the Summer Ag Institute and Family Consumer Science conferences. • Worked with USMEF, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, to conduct training seminars, virtual cooking classes, U.S. beef showcases and festivals, retail and foodservice promotions, BBQ competitions in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong/China, the Greater Russian Region, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
“TBC continues to work hard at promoting beef across this great state,” McAdams said. “We’ve taken steps to continuously improve our engagement and outreach efforts, from foodservice, medical professionals and retail to consumer advertising and promotion and everything in between. We hope Texas producers are proud of our work this past year, and we want them to know we’re always seeking out new, innovative ways to grow beef demand.” Press release courtesy of Texas Beef Council.
ARKANSAS JUNIOR BRANGUS ASSOCIATION
The Arkansas Junior Brangus Breeders Association recently announced their state show. The Arkansas Junior Brangus Show will be held June 10-11, 2022 in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
FEATURE ARTICLE
GENETIC TRENDS FOR BRANGUS
by Darrell Wilkes, Ph.D., International Brangus Breeders Association (IBBA) executive vice president
Genetic trends in a breed population over time reflect the selection pressure that is applied to the population. When evaluating trends, two questions come to mind: 1) If we
keep doing what we’ve been doing for another 10 years, will we be in a better position or a poorer position? 2) Are we selecting in a way that will boost demand for Brangus genetics or are we out of touch with the demands of the commercial beef industry?
Given the very same data, two different breeders may reach two different conclusions. One believes that the breed is moving in the right direction, and another believes the trend is in the wrong direction. Ultimately, the “right” answer must be consistent with beef production economics. Fads come and go in the seedstock industry, but productivity and profitability will always be the final measuring stick. If genetic trends for beef production profitability are negative, even though genetic trends for some individual traits are “good”, the chickens will eventually come home to roost. A breed with such a genetic trend profile will lose market share and may, in the extreme, become totally irrelevant. Anybody who has been in the cattle business for a few decades can name a handful of breeds that were introduced with great fanfare, became wildly popular for a short time, and then disappeared. Why? Because they simply did not add value to the beef production chain. Fads and fanfare only last for a short period of time. Long term, economics always prevail.
The easiest way to accomplish a very steep genetic trend for a trait is to ignore all other traits and focus only on the “trait de jour.” In the mid-70’s through mid 80’s, I submit that the “hot” trait was frame score. Virtually every breed chased frame score to the extreme while ignoring virtually everything else. There was a robust genetic trend toward taller cattle. Were they more profitable? Obviously, not. Otherwise, we’d still be bragging about how tall they are and show judges could simply use a tape measure to place a class.
Cattle breeding would be too easy if all traits were positively correlated such that a positive genetic trend for one trait automatically produced a positive genetic trend in another. Some traits are antagonistic – positive movement on one trait tends to create negative movement with another. In most cases, the antagonistic genetic correlations are not so strong that they cannot be overcome. Animals that are above average for two antagonistic traits exist. However, when trying to simultaneously improve the genetic merit for a pair of antagonistic traits, it usually means that the rate of genetic change in each trait is slower compared to what could be achieved if one of the two traits was ignored. The message here is that genetic trend data must be viewed in a multi-trait context. The genetic trends presented here are the overall trends for Brangus, Red Brangus and Ultra cattle. Each of these subpopulations has slightly different trends, but they are 10-Year Fertility Index Trend by Birth Year
1.000 0.900 0.800 0.700 0.600 0.500 0.400 0.300 0.200 0.100 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 AI ET NS 10-Year Terminal Index Trend by Birth Year
3.500 3.000 2.500 2.000 1.500 1.000 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 AI ET NS
similar in their degree and direction. The trend data are presented separately for animals that are the product of AI, ET or natural service.
The charts on page 22 show the trends for the Fertility Index and the Terminal Index. These are presented first because it is an easy way to judge whether or not Brangus genetics are moving forward with a balanced approach or an imbalanced approach.
These indexes are presented in standard deviation units rather than pounds or dollars. This is not entirely intuitive to many people and the IBBA Breed Improvement Committee is re-thinking how these indexes could be presented in a more intuitive way. But, for now, it is easy to see that both indexes are sloping upward and are fairly consistent regardless of service type.
For the terminal index, which includes all postweaning traits such as Yearling Weight, Rib Eye Area and IMF, the population average moved 0.7 standard deviations up. One needs to be a bit of a statistics nerd to put this in perspective, but suffice to say that this rate of improvement is fairly good. This is not surprising since terminal traits are easy to measure and have fairly high heritability, both of which are factors that significantly affect the rate of genetic change.
The Fertility Index posted a gain of approximately 0.3 standard deviations over the decade. This is slower change than the terminal index, which is to be expected since fertility traits are lower in heritability, are more difficult to measure with precision, and require many years of accumulated data in order to measure (example: Stayability. It takes six years to see if a cow stays in the herd for six years).
The most important aspect of the two charts above is that the Fertility Index and the Terminal Index improved simultaneously. In very general terms, terminal traits have a tendency to be antagonistic with fertility traits. For instance, yearling weight is positive for terminal value because it expresses post-weaning growth. If looking only at terminal, it is hard to identify a Yearling Weight level that is “too much.” However, when looking at the fertility equation, too much post-weaning growth is negative because it leads to cows that are larger than optimum, require more resources to maintain, and subsequently pay a price in fertility.
Most open-minded critics would look at these data and conclude that Brangus breeders are doing a good job of balancing the terminal and maternal/ fertility equation.
THE WEIGHT TRAITS
The charts to the right show the trends for birth weight, weaning weight and yearling weight. Brangus breeders have been able to increase weaning and
2 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0
40
35
30
25
20
15 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
AI ET NS
10-Year Weaning Weight Trend by Birth Year
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
AI ET NS
11.000 10.000 9.000 8.000 7.000 6.000 5.000 4.000 10-Year Milk EPD Trend by Birth Year
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
AI ET NS
(continued from page 23) yearling growth while holding birth weight fairly constant. This has become a basic requirement in the beef industry and similar patterns are present for most relevant breeds. Without exception, whenever commercial cattle producers are surveyed, they score calving ease as a critically important trait, and they want as much weaning growth as they can get while avoiding calving difficulty due to large birth weight.
In general terms, all growth traits have a positive genetic correlation with all other growth traits. As one increases, the others tend to increase also. Hence, in order to hold BW constant while increasing WW and YW, it is necessary to identify seedstock that defy the genetic correlations. With a competent genetic evaluation (i.e. computation of EPDs) such animals can be and have been identified in every breed, including Brangus.
In reviewing these trends, it may seem that the absolute increases in weaning weight or yearling weight understate what many breeders have observed in their herds. Bear in mind that the trends are expressed in terms of EPDs. By definition, an EPD expresses the relative effect on future progeny of a random sample of one-half of a parent animal’s genes. For instance, if a random sample of one half of a sire’s genes results in a 10-lb. improvement in the trait among his progeny (compared to breed average for instance), that means that the sire himself has a genetic value of +20. This value is commonly called the Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) and is still used (instead of EPDs) in many countries around 0 the world.
The computation of EPDs sorts out environmental effects. For example, if you were to experience a two-year drought that reduced your average weaning weight by 50 lb., it will not cause your weaning weight EPDs to decline. Likewise, if you were to provide a very lush nutritional environment, including creep feed for instance, and increase your average weaning weights by 50 lb., it will not cause your weaning weight EPDs to increase. EPDs are based on the measured differences among animals that are managed together in the same environment. So, whether the environment is lush or sparse, the differences between animals with different genetic merit will still be expressed and it is these differences that are used in the computation of EPDs.
THE CARCASS TRAITS
The charts below show the trends for IMF (intramuscular fat) and rib eye area. Brangus breeders have been able to increase these traits simultaneously. With reference to IMF, the population average has increased significantly. For this trait, the Ultrablack population is an outlier as illustrated by the Ultrablack line in the chart. It is clear from this that Brangus breeders who are breeding Ultrablacks are introducing higher-marbling genetics by selectively utilizing Angus dams and sires. Having the ability to cherry-pick the Angus population to introduce new genetics was the primary rationale for launching the Ultrablack product line in the first place. There are too few Ultrareds in the population to create a meaningful trend. There has been an obvious increase in rib eye area (REA) over the past decade. Based on actual phenotypes over the past several years, Brangus are actually above par for rib eye size per 100-lbs of live weight. Indicus-influence cattle were (continued on page 26) 10-Year Trend in IMF EPD by Birth Year
0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
-0.05 AI ET NS UB 10-Year EPD Trend for Rib Eye Area by Birth Year
0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 AI ET NS
DATA BANK DATA BANK
GENEPLUS
GENEPLUS
(continued from page 24) harshly criticized in the mid 80’s for being light-muscled. That is no longer the case, at least for Brangus. “Par” is the rib eye size that, when considered in the USDA Yield Grade equation, does not raise nor lower the Yield Grade.
CONCLUSIONS AND TAKEAWAYS
A key conclusion from this analysis is that the Brangus population is trending upward for fertility and for terminal value at the same time. This may or may not be observed in every Brangus herd because different breeders have different priorities, but the fact that it holds true for the overall population is highly significant.
The Fertility Index may or may not be a good proxy for a more comprehensive Maternal Productivity Index. There is no debate that fertility is the single most important maternal trait, but maternal productivity includes more than just fertility. We should challenge ourselves to think through this issue and determine if a more comprehensive maternal index is needed.
The trends are shown separately for the three different service types – AI, ET, and Natural Service (NS). There are no surprises in this analysis. AI and ET accommodate more aggressive and potentially more accurate selection of parents. For most traits where a higher number is desirable, the cattle produced by ET were higher at the beginning of the 10-year period and were higher at the end of the 10-year period.
The chart below shows the trends for service type focusing only on Brangus, Red Brangus, Ultrablack, and Ultrared cattle. Approximately two-thirds of all calves registered are sired by natural service. This has changed very little over the 10-year period. Most impartial observers would view this as an opportunity to increase the percentage of the calf crop that is sired AI or produced via ET. Of course, there is nothing inherent in these technologies that promises faster genetic improvement. Their use allows for more rapid genetic change, but actual genetic improvement is entirely dependent on the selection of the AI sires and the ET donor dams.
Finally, it is interesting to look at the trends in the submission of performance data. Weaning data is the true benchmark. Submission of weaning weights topped out at 70% and hit a low of 60% during the decade. Again, an impartial observer would see this as a huge opportunity to increase the pace of genetic improvement. Without Weaning Weight, Yearling Weight cannot be computed. Brangus are considered a maternal breed and one of the most important measures of maternal performance is weaning weight. Hence, it is obvious that breeders need to increase submission of weaning data. One might suspect that breeders are skipping the capture of weaning, yearling, and ultrasound data based on the notion that DNA testing will make up for the lack of actual data. It won’t. Moreover, if one looks at the herds that have the most complete data submission, they also are the most aggressive users of DNA testing for genomic enhancement of EPDs. They’re doing it all. In most cases, they are highly successful marketing seedstock at profitable prices.
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%
10-Year Trend in Service Type
0%
80% 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 A.I. E.T. NS Data Submitted as a Percent of Registrations
70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Weaning Yearling U-Sound
