Beef Business
Matt director of Woolfolk performance programs
Measuring Up for Carcass Traits Many of us in the Shorthorn breed view the end product as the cattle we sell to go to work in other herds, both registered and commercial. However, we must keep in mind that the ultimate product we are raising on our ranches is the beef that is in our local meat market and on our neighbors’ plates. We may be a couple steps removed from the commercial cattleman or feedlot operator who sends the fed cattle to the plant, but our decisions impact that product each and every day. The modern consumer meat trade is being driven by a strong demand for high-quality beef. As we collect data on our seedstock to document their performance, the most complex piece of data we can collect is carcass performance of our genetics. It’s hard to know if our genetics can produce the type of beef the market demands without some data to support them. The problem here is that most of the time, you can’t have a heifer be a carcass data point and a replacement female at the same time! Fortunately, technology allows us to collect reliable carcass statistics while keeping our breeding stock on the hoof by using ultrasound technology. Carcass ultrasound allows us to take an image of a bull or heifer’s ribeye using an ultrasound probe on the side of the animal. From that image, we can determine important metrics such as ribeye area, fat thickness, and percentage of intramuscular fat. It’s
12
a very specialized business. Carcass ultrasound requires a certified technician to take the images of your cattle. These technicians must attend and pass a certification course to ensure that they are capable of collecting images that are acceptable for interpretation and use in breed association EPD calculations. The technician will send the images they take from your cattle to a processing lab to interpret the images and measure the data points from that image. The lab will send the information to the ASA office, who inputs the information into the database and reports results back to you. A complete list of currently certified technicians is available on the Ultrasound Guidelines Council website (ultrasoundguidelinescouncil.org). Carcass ultrasound data in Digital Beef is reported as an adjusted figure to a year of age, to level the playing field of cattle being scanned at various ages. The age window that ASA will accept ultrasound information on cattle is from 270 to 500 days. Bulls and heifers both can have ultrasound data collected on them. While most larger bull sales in the industry sell sire prospects that have carcass scan data, it’s important to not forget about your replacements heifers when taking this data. Carcass ultrasound data on your females is arguably more valuable to genetic improvement in your herd, where carcass ultrasound on bull calves pushes genetic improvement in
shorthorn country = february 2022
your buyers’ herds. The heifers you keep back are the foundation for the future of your cow herd, and having carcass scan information adds accuracy to your carcass trait EPDs in those cows you’ll be breeding for years to come. Additionally, it’s likely that ASA can provide breeders a financial incentive to collect carcass ultrasound data on their heifers. The ASA’s Genomically Enhanced Female Project provides a cost rebate on genomic testing that the savings can cover the costs of hiring a technician to come scan your heifers. The busy season for ultrasound technicians is this time of year, generally from January through April. If you have considered doing some ultrasound data collection on your cattle, now is the time to look for a technician and get on their schedules. If your herd is smaller and you don’t have a lot of cattle to scan but want to collect the data, you can work with other breeders in the area to get as many head in one scanning session to minimize expenses for everyone involved. To continue to move the Shorthorn breed forward, we have to know where we currently stand for traits of importance. Carcass data is no exception, and thanks to the ultrasound technology, we can discover a baseline for our genetic merit for these valuable traits while keeping the animals in the breeding herd. =
