PAGE 2 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
Looking for answers
USDA scientists work on cattle fertility n
By Mikkel Pates
Agweek Staff Writer
MILES CITY, Mont. — U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers are working to develop new techniques to improve fertility of beef cattle and cut breeding costs. Tom Geary, a research animal scientist and physiologist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Miles City, Mont., is collaborating on a study with Peter Sutovsky of the University of Missouri in Columbia. Before their collaboration began, Sutovsky had identified two biological markers that could identify semen that were in the process of dying, or were less fertile.
“Peter had some compounds that could detect these biological markers, and he would stick these compounds to magnetic particles and mix them with sperm in a tube,” Geary says. They expose the tube to a magnet to sort out the bad semen and freeze only the good semen. The scientists are working with Select Sires Inc. of Plain City, Ohio, a company that collects and sells semen from beef and dairy bulls, to help the researchers purify it to remove any of these markers. Beef cow pregnancy rates using AI vary from year to year, but generally are relatively high, in the 55 to 65 percent range. In preliminary results from 2013 trials, they’ve found the purified semen offers a 10 percent improvement in pregnancy rate, compared with nonpurified.
Pencil it out Only about 7 to 8 percent of
Mikkel Pates, Agweek
G Yearling heifers from the reproductive physiology herd at the Fort Keogh Livestock and Ranch Research Laboratory in Miles City, Mont., are calved in the feedlot and then moved to grass. commercial herds use AI — up only marginally from about 4 to 5 percent about 15 years
ago, Geary says. BREEDING: See Page 3
BREEDING Continued from Page 2
“They have to pencil it, and it’s not always the cheapest way to go,” he says. Kris Ringwall, director of the Dickinson (N.D.) Research Extension Center, says work on AI techniques is ongoing, but there are labor and logistics costs. The center has gone to MayJune calving to reduce labor costs. But AI becomes more difficult in July and August, when the cattle are out on pasture and otherwise unavailable for pen breeding. AI-sired calves are worth about $100 more per calf, Ringwall says. Minimum costs for AI are about $20, but much of the costs are in labor and logistics. Generally the practice is common for purebred producers. Some proGeary ducers are using AI to improve the genetics of their cow herd. Some are content with the genetics and do well by having a less-intensively managed program. Most AI users today employ procedures to time AI, rather than simply observing cows for signs of estrus and breeding only by heat. AI is a process done at a single time for an entire herd, but all cows in the herd are not the
AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 3 same. Some have calved more recently. Other cows have calved longer ago and are starting to have estrus cycles. “With a couple of different treatments, we can decide that three days from now. We can breed all of the cows, and we’ve got the fertility perhaps as high as if the bull had bred them in a natural cycle,” Geary says.
Good to better
In preliminary results from 2013, scientists were able to increase the pregnancy rate from AI about 10 percent using four AI sires. The higher the success rate, the fewer cull cows and better reproductive success. “We get higher pregnancy rate in the first service of the season,” Geary says. “Producers who are looking to use genetically superior sires and use artificial insemination would benefit because now they could get 10 percent more calves for the cost of using AI. “It might be that we’re improving fertilization rates, and it might be that we’re improving pregnancy retention,” Geary says. “Early embryonic mortality occurs in about 30 percent of beef cows. Fertilization occurs, but the embryo dies prematurely,” Geary says. “It could be that we’re removing the sperm that create an embryo that wouldn’t survive. Now we have higher pregnancy rates as a result.”
BREEDING: See Page 4
Mikkel Pates, Agweek
G The Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Miles City, Mont., is a U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service installation, with 40 employees.
PAGE 4 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
BREEDING Continued from Page 3
One of the challenges to improving pregnancy rates is to identify pregnancies early enough to distinguish between higher rates of fertilization or pregnancy maintenance. “The earliest they can identify pregnancy in cows is day 28, after breeding,” Geary says. “There’s a lot that has to occur
MILES CITY, Mont. — The Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and the Montana Experiment Station, which owns the cattle herd. The station has about 40 employees, including seven federal scientists — two nutritionists, two reproductive physiologists, and three range scientists. It was built on the site of a military fort that was created after the Little Bighorn battle in 1876. The president sent a cavalry encampment to where the Tongue River goes into the Yellowstone River. The
correctly before that stage, so we lose a lot of pregnancies before that stage.”
The factors
In a separate but related study, researchers are working to learn what factors affect fertility and pregnancy rates in cows. They have found a higher fertility and pregnancy rate when the egg comes from a larger follicle and now want to know why. In late June, the researchers
and colleagues from the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota in Grand Rapids collected eggs from 250 cows in the herd, using an ultrasound-guided biopsy needle to collect eggs. They took eggs from small follicles, large follicles, or follicles from cows that were in estrus in the previous 12 hours. The ones in estrus are a fully mature egg and follicle. The large ones are close to mature, and the eggs from the small ones are believed to be immature.
4 herds
fort squared off 10 miles to the west and to the south from that point. In 1924, the fort became a federal research station. About half of the employees work for the federal government and half work for the state government. There are four cattle herds: n The station maintains a herd of 140 Line 1 Hereford cows — a closed herd dating to the late 1920s and early 1930s. Line 1 cows trace to stock purchased in 1924 from George M. Miles of Miles City. “They’re now about 30 percent inbred, and from a geneticist’s standpoint, that’s a good thing to have,” says Tom Geary, a research animal scientist and
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“We’re trying to understand what genes are turned on and off in the ones that are fully mature versus the ones that aren’t fully mature,” Geary says. “The goal would be to avoid ovulating some of those immature follicles” and develop strategies that would improve fertility and offer more opportunities for a cow to conceive in a breeding season. It’s too early to say what those strategies might be, he says.
and efficiency studies. Closed herd means all of the sires for that herd came from within it. n The station has started a small Angus herd to cross Line 1 Herefords with Angus. “We know from heterosis that we get an improvement of a lot of traits that are of economic importance, but we’re not real sure how or why that happens from a genetics standpoint,” Geary says. “If we see an increase in weaning rate, how is it that that happens genetically? We get better growth rates and higher weaning weights and we get better fertility. We’re trying to identify the mechanisms in which the genes interact to improve those traits.”
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PAGE 6 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
In the black Boeckel still enjoys Angus work n
By Mikkel Pates
Agweek Staff Writer
HAZEN, N.D. — Boeckel Angus Ranch has been in the Angus business since 1946 — a year that’s easy to remember because it’s the year LeRoy Boeckel was born. Boeckel, now 68, has been running the place since he was 22. His grandfather, Ludwig, came from Russia in 1905 and settled north of Beulah, N.D. Ludwig’s father, David, was among five brothers who farmed in that area — in the land where coal gasification now is dominant. But Herefords were king in the 1940s.
David was one of the first in Mercer County to own registered Angus cattle, which made a good cross with Herefords. David held his first production bull sale in 1963. He had 35 milk cows, too, and crossed Angus with Holsteins to make them gentler. LeRoy was the thirdyoungest of eight children, and remembers running the silage cutter at age 13. Children had a lot of responsibility in those days.
Bibles and bulls A Bible school teacher once asked LeRoy what he wanted to be when he grew up. “I said I wanted to be the biggest rancher in Mercer County,” he says. LeRoy was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968. He went to ANGUS: See Page 7
Mikkel Pates, Agweek
G LeRoy Boeckel’s family started in the purebred Angus business near Hazen, N.D., the year he was born — 1946. The herd includes these yearling bulls.
Continued from Page 6
Expansion basic training in the Seattle area, where a commanding ofIn the 1970s, LeRoy started ficer was so impressed with leasing more land. He thinks his drive and his conviction to one of the keys to his career is “feed the world,” that the offithat he never mortgaged an cer found a way to send him acre of land. It was also easier home, LeRoy to deal with says. “I figured God lenders be“He said I they asmade me a farmer, cause could do this sumed if he country more borrow so I had my mind didn’t good out of money from the service made up that if I them, he’d than in the borrow from service — lose everything, I’d his dad. that’s just “My dad just start over.” what he said,” was an insurLeRoy says. LeRoy Boeckel ance policy, It was a Farmer and he didn’t kind of miracharge me a cle, LeRoy premium,” figures. LeRoy says. “I promised The 1980s God that he were tough. blessed me so “There that I was going to do somewere years we lost $100,000 in thing for mission in my life,” farming,” LeRoy says, but he he says. couldn’t give up. “I figured LeRoy went home in May God made me a farmer, so I 1968. He married Allegra in had my mind made up that if I December of that year and lose everything, I’d just start took over the farm the next over.” spring. The farm credit crisis creHis father had accumulated ated opportunities for those 35 quarters — about 5,600 who could expand. LeRoy acres of land — plus land in bought the ranch he lives on, Canada. He divided the cows another in the mid-1980s, and between LeRoy and his older another in Wing, N.D. He had brother Clayton and made a goal of owning 35 quarters deals to take future calves on shares. He gave them some ANGUS: See Page 8 land, but sold them some, too
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AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 7 — Clayton in the west, and LeRoy in the east where there was more pasture.
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Mikkel Pates, Agweek
G The Boeckel family was the first to bring Angus cattle into North Dakota’s Mercer County in 1946, the year LeRoy Boeckel was born. They started their first annual production sales in 1963. The 2015 sale will be the first week in February at Kist Livestock Auction — 100 bulls and 600 to 800 bred heifers.
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PAGE 8 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
ANGUS Continued from Page 7 of land, like his father had. He hoped to accumulate 300 good Angus cows, but he’d do much more than that. He bought land in the Zap, Wing, Pettibone, Steele and Riverdale areas. He deals with coal companies that own reclaimed land and want someone to lease it. The farm today is about 37,000 acres, including some 12,000 acres of cropland. He still farms 1,500 himself, and the rest he leases out. Boeckel is still investing in the future. This year, he turned a pasture on the Hazen ranch into irrigated cropland, using some of the profits from the recently strong cattle market. “It was always grass, and I broke it up July 7 and on the eighth we started seeding it,” he says. He feels fortunate because his farm sits atop an aquifer, 230 feet deep in a gravel vein
Boeckel says it is for figuring out ways to control costs and still raise quality cattle. “If the top cattle are bringing $900, how can I sell cattle for $850 and still make Secrets of the trade money?” he says. One key is to Boeckel says he’s cutting sell bigger calves and then back on cattle. Through the just “work, work, work.” 1990s and until 2005, he had He is known for buying year1,500 to 2,300 Angus mother ling bulls, cows, a total them to herd of up to “Yes, I’m having using breed heifers, 4,500 cattle — fun, loving what and then turnall registered ing around and Angus. He I’m doing, but I selling them as was one of soon-to-be twothe top five can’t quit.” year-olds. registered “I always buy LeRoy Boeckel Angus breeders in the Farmer calving-ease bulls,” he says. world for Boeckel has nearly 15 concerns about years. how the curIn 2004, rent record cattle prices can Boeckel sold 1,900 bred cows and scaled back, in part to buy hold up. Ultimately, it’ll be about beef consumption and land. The market was good competing on the meat shelf. and he paid off all of his As a beef industry veteran, debts. He bought a ranch and Boeckel says he thinks too some real estate in Bismarck. many heifers and heiferettes Today the herd is about 2,000 (a heifer that lost her calf the head, including some cow-calf previous year) are being bred. pairs and bred heifers. Most ranchers calve in If he has a particular talent, and putting out 1,500 gallons a minute. He irrigates out of the Knife River for three other pivots.
March and April, and if a heiferette fails to support a calf, she goes to the sale barn and is bound for a feedlot in Nebraska. This year, those were largely kept back for breeding. Cattlemen were paying $1,800 for them and think they will bring $2,500 when they come to market in December or January. Boeckel is skeptical. Boeckel says he’s chosen not to breed as many heifers as he has in the past — “just to be a little different.” Or maybe it’s time to cut back on the work. He half-jokes that one big mistake he made was not having more kids. Daughter Lori and son Travis took other careers off the ranch. He has a hired man, but much of what happens is up to Boeckel. “Yes, I’m having fun, loving what I’m doing, but I can’t quit,” LeRoy says. “When I look in the mirror when I get up, I think, ‘That’s the guy that has to get things done today.’ I might have to take the garbage out. I might make a milliondollar deal. Either way, I have to grab my hat and go for it.”
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AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 9
Mikkel Pates, Agweek
G Boeckel Angus Ranch is an institution in Mercer County, N.D. LeRoy and Allegra Boeckel for many years were among the nation’s largest registered Angus breeders in the country.
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G LeRoy Boeckel was one of the top five registered Angus breeders in the world for nearly 15 years.
PAGE 10 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
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New territory for beef industry Consumer demand strong despite record prices n
By Jonathan Knutson
Agweek Staff Writer
Even the experts are struggling to understand why demand for increasingly expensive beef is holding up better than expected. “Demand for beef isn’t as price-sensitive as we once thought,” says Jayson Lusk, who teaches at Oklahoma State University. Lusk’s research focuses primarily on predicting and understanding consumer behavior as it relates to food. He oversees Oklahoma State University’s monthly Food Demand Survey, which tracks consumer preferences and sentiments on food, particularly meat. The survey is weighted to match the U.S. population in terms of age, gender, education and region of residence. Though there are monthly fluctuations, the survey doesn’t show an overall downward trend in what consumers are willing to pay for beef, Lusk says. That’s welcome news to cattle producers and others in the beef industry, who have been concerned that soaring beef prices will cut into demand. Some fallback in demand is inevitable, economists say. U.S. beef supplies are smaller than they once were, and the market uses higher retail prices to ration limited supplies. But the decline in the amount of beef sold is more than offset by higher prices for it, putting more money in ranchers’ pockets, Lusk says.
AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 11
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Good news for cattle producers High beef prices don't have a big correlation with U.S. consumers' willingness to pay for beef, according to Oklahoma State University, which tracks demand for meat. The most recent monthly figures show that consumer willingness to buy steak fell slightly, as did steak prices — the opposite of what might be expected. Their willingness to buy hamburger rose slightly, as did hamburger prices, which also might be unexpected. More importantly, willingness to pay for steak and hamburger is higher than a year ago, despite the higher prices, according to OSU.
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He notes that willingness to pay isn’t the same as demand, but “the maximum consumers are willing to pay.” Higher prices don’t necessarily reduce willingness to pay, and lower prices don’t always increase it. That’s evident in the most recent food demand survey, released Nov. 17. Consumer willingness to pay for hamburger rose from October to November, even as the price of hamburger rose in the same PRICES: See Page 12
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PAGE 12 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
PRICES Continued from Page 11 period. Also, willingness to pay for steak fell slightly from October to November, even as the price of steak dropped slightly in the same period. Most important, however, consumers were willing to pay more for virtually all meat products this November than they were a year ago, according to the survey.
No easy answers Lusk doesn’t have a simple or single answer for why demand for beef is holding up this well. “There’s a whole host of factors. We don’t know the entire answer.
This is new territory for the industry,” he says. The continued popularity of high-protein diets is one factor, as is consumers’ lower-thanexpected willingness to shift to poultry, he says. Food retailers are doing their part to maintain demand for beef by absorbing some of its rising cost, says Laura Strange, director of communications and marketing for the National Grocers Association, which represents independent grocery retailers and wholesalers. “In this highly competitive marketplace, food retailers look to differentiate themselves from the competition, and price is one of those areas,” she says.
John Brose, Special to Agweek
G Consumer demand for beef is strong, despite record prices. Consumer willingness to pay for steak and hamburger also is higher than a year ago.
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AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 13
PAGE 14 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
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Use the available EPDs
netically equal. Genetic uniformity starts at home by selecting good bulls through knowledgeable and informed selection and implementing By Kris Ringwall focused production goals for clear outcomes relevant to A producer does not need to beef cattle production. know all the mathematics, jusA visit to the many breed astifications or scientific association websites proves the pects of breed association point. Because we started disexpected progeny differences cussing cattle with black hair (EPDs). These EPDs are availcolor, let’s go to the American able to all purebred and comAngus Association website at www.angus.org. mercial producers, so use Like many them. The beGenetic uniformity websites, the hind-thescenes starts at home by association’s business afprofessionals fairs are up will fine-tune selecting good front. It offers this terrific bulls through opportunities tool for beef market producers. knowledgeable to calves or even The other get involved day, while and informed with the watching catbreed. But asselection and tle sell, the sociations are variation was implementing larger than obvious. This simply managis not to say focused ing a breed of that all variaproduction goals... cattle. The astions can be sociation is managed, but the home of the thought of the genetic the genetic database. source of the Let’s concattle certinue at tainly was on www.angus.org. Although my mind. there are multiple ways to get Single-colored cattle do not to the Angus EPDs, let’s find mean similarity in genetic the tab that references “Manbackground. For example, agement.” Click on it and black hair coats are the result move down to the “Sire Evaluof a dominant allele, so techation Report.” Click on the nically, all cattle need is one “Sire Evaluation Report” and allele or gene to express a a screen will come up that black hair coat. While there are many modifying genes, the lists several interesting options. bottom line is hair coat color This will be the primary has nothing to do with overall genetic uniformity in beef cat- screen needed by someone looking for bulls. A review of tle. traits available can be found It begins by accepting the at “How to Read the Results fact that all bulls are not cre— Definitions.” ated equally. Bulls might look similar, but they are not geBUYING: See Page 16
n
AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 15
PAGE 16 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
BUYING
Continued from Page 14 The definitions are needed to remind producers how the selection of a particular trait will impact future beef cattle performance. The definitions are not complicated, but understanding them is important, particularly if a producer chooses to use Ringwall the index traits that associations have developed. Let’s keep it simple, at least for the traits we want to review. We want to find the genetic information available on bulls. Again, do not get lost in the numerous additional tabs. Go back to the “Sire Evaluation Report” and we will end this discussion on the “Breed Averages for EPD and $Values” table.
Those numbers are indicative of the average EPD value for each particular trait. Knowing those numbers will help a producer meet production goals. For the Dickinson Research Extension Center, the traits of interest for the average nonparent Angus bull include EPD values for birth weight of 1.8 pounds, weaning weight of 49 pounds, yearling weight of 85 pounds, milk production of 24 pounds, rib-eye area of 0.46 square inch and a marbling score of 0.47. Those are real numbers. But the real question is how to raise the percentile threshold selection pressure while still being able to afford the bull. The competition is using EPDs, so use them to find the right bull, pay the right price and sell the right calves. Editor’s note: Ringwall is a North Dakota State University Extension Service livestock specialist and the Dickinson Research Extension Center director.
John Brose, Special to Agweek
G A producer does not need to know all the mathematics, justifications or scientific aspects of EPDs. But all producers should use EPDs to find the right bull and meet production goals.
It’s all in the mindset
Be ready to evolve with change n
By Kris Ringwall I could not help noticing Whit Hibbard’s article, It’s All About Mindset, that popped up on the Drovers CattleNetwork. The article talked about low-stress livestock handling. The article quoted Bud Williams, who notes that to establish the principles of lowstress livestock handling, one must have the correct mindset. Whit points out the lowstress concept and also says we really need to think about what the term “mindset” means. The article gets us thinking about low-stress livestock handling and how important the concept is within beef cattle operations. In a broader sense, I could not help thinking about how that mindset term floats
around the beef industry. Fall dents, as well as the whole is the time for class, at least class. There is no question for young minds who arrive at that the instructor has the caschools and look forward to a pacity to enhance or constrain year of learning. student mindsets, but the overriding factor is the mindWith time spent teaching, set of the students. one comes to appreciate the term mindIf they do set very not want to ...The right mindset be in class, quickly. As the stu- is critical to moving the chaldents file lenge begins. into class, forward with an If they do there is this not want to evaluation of any feeling, as learn, the an instrucchallenge inparticular beef tor, on how creases. If the day will program, operation, they do not go. Actually, to exstudents, teachers want after sevperience eral classes, and even producers. change, the instructors challenge begin to get becomes a feel for more insurhow the semountable. mester will Perhaps go. That moving more toward an open feeling is a direct response to mindset versus a closed mindthe mindset of the students. set is the goal. The overall experiences, But it is not fair to just pick joys and frustrations of teachon students because the world ing depend on the correct mindset within individual stu- of educators and academics
also can get caught in the same trap. How many times should one say: Do we not already know that? But, those with advanced degrees also struggle in the effort to crack open minds that then can ask new questions. It would be even better if those minds could take those new questions and answers and apply them to an industry that may or may not want the answer. I wish I could write down the number of times I have heard someone say: “Those darn academics just don’t live in the real world.” Sometimes the quote is made rather strongly. The quote is sometimes true and sometimes not. Now back to the original point. As Whit pointed out, the right mindset is critical to moving forward with an evaluation of any particular beef program, operation, students, teachers and even producers. But why point this out today? The Dickinson Research
MINDSET: See Page 18
AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 17
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PAGE 18 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
MINDSET
Continued from Page 16 Extension Center has to re-evaluate the cow herd. Ever-occurring change surrounds the center. As land with a longstanding agricultural use is absorbed in urban spread or impacted by the energy industry, the center needs to become more focused and more intense in terms of programs that are offered. It means the center’s mindset needs to be broadened. A human trait is to resist change. The general logic behind the resistance is the acknowledgment that what is being done presently is the best. Unfortunately, the present is generally evaluated by those who are there, so the evaluation certainly is biased toward the idea that “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Sounds like a mindset clog. The bottom line is that the world is changing and the center needs to change with it. The needs of today’s cattle industry are not the same as yesteryear’s needs. Granted, much that we do does not change, but as we add knowledge, just like the students we are trying to edu-
cate, we to need to sit up and listen. Whit’s article was on the principles of low-stress livestock handling and establishing the correct mindset for evaluation and change. The same can be said for cattle performance and fitting cattle to the environment. Modern genomics are just beginning to creep into the industry. Some would say the world of genetics is a dynamic change button in any world. The knowledge being revealed will challenge the mind. The tendency to move forward or backward will depend on how open one is to trying to implement this knowledge within managerial structures. The answers are not set and the questions start with us looking at our own mindset. If we do not want to be in class, the challenge begins. If we do not want to learn, the challenge increases. If we do not want to experience change, the challenge becomes more insurmountable. But change is coming. Editor’s note: Ringwall is a North Dakota State University Extension Service livestock specialist and the Dickinson Research Extension Center director.
John Brose, Special to Agweek
G Change is coming in the cattle industry and producers must evolve.
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AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 19
PAGE 20 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
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done. But those tweaks only can do so much. As an industry, our tweaking is evident. But some days, I wonder because we can do better. Maybe one should not say that. But, the other day, while watching several sets of By Kris Ringwall cattle sell at a public market, the variation that was present Acquiring good bulls was notable. through knowledgeable and The cows, bulls, yearlings informed bull selection is critand calves of all sizes and ical to the survival of the beef types were selling to the business. sound of the auction. With Implementing focused proeach swing of the door, one set duction goals, with clear outwent out and one comes relevant to the producThe concept came in. The crowd waited tion of beef, is that the with anticipation critical. If in the announcedoubt, simply auction market for ment of what was glance over the fence and view will sort away behind the incoming door. If the competition. all the the set of cattle The poultry, large, the swine and dairy problems is not was mooing of the catindustries routle could be tinely produce true. heard. If the set very uniform, was small, the marketable door would swing products that open and close meet predefined quickly, and the production goals utilizing the bidding would begin. same tools that are available I do not want to be critical to the beef industry. because the type of cattle proBut first let’s talk about ducers choose to raise is up to working cattle because it althem, and the market does an ways is challenging. With the excellent job at connecting cold snap and several sets of the seller and buyer. But cows needing ultrasounding for pregnancy evaluation, I got sometimes thoughtful presale pondering by the producer on ready. how those cattle will look at Chuteside attire certainly the market isn’t always evivaries with the weather. Havdent. ing prepared for the cold with For the most part, there allayered clothing under the ways is a buyer, but sometraditional blue coveralls, I times determining how to best suddenly realized my ability present the cattle needs to be to put my plastic boots over thought through. The concept the cowboy boots was in questhat the auction market will tion. sort away all the problems is Reaching my feet was a not true. That being said, catchallenge, but the job got tle that are unthrifty need to done. stay at home, eat some groI was reminded that we all ceries and “beef up” a little change. If nothing else, we get bit. That might not be easy but older. Our individual flexibilcertainly is a worthy goal for a ity seems to come up short some days, but with an appropriate tweak, we get the job BETTER: See Page 22
n
AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 21
PAGE 22 - Monday, December 22, 2014 / AGWEEK
BETTER
Continued from Page 20 beef operation. But we can do better. Fundamentally, there is a larger issue than the simple management, presentation and sale of cattle, which is the genetics of the business. Those cattle that arrive for sale lacking good structure, condition and muscling are products of breeding programs. As was noted at the beginning, focused breeding goals, with clear outcomes relevant to the production of beef, should be at the heart of all cattle operations. Simply breeding cows to produce calves with no thoughtful purpose challenges the industry. The competition appreciates those cattle, but the cattle industry should not. As producers, the tools are readily available to assure the availability of bulls that will carry with them the genetics that will meet focused breeding goals and outcomes relevant to the production of excellent beef for consumption by the consumer. The ultrasound evaluations
of the cows are finished. The pregnancy rate is good, but my cold hands started my mind thinking some inside work would be good, which means bull buying. The bull catalogs are starting to arrive, and the opportunity for proper selection of genetics means a better product. Focused production goals for the Dickinson (N.D.) Research Extension Center that involve clear outcomes relevant to the production of beef are open for discussion. But the center has selected for birth, weaning and yearling weight, and rib eye area for several years. Attention for milk production and marbling also have been part of the selection process. The real question is setting the percentile thresholds within the various breeds. The selection pressure is rising while keeping the bulls affordable. Not all bulls are created equally, so find the right bull, pay the right price and sell the right calves. Editor’s note: Ringwall is a North Dakota State University Extension Service livestock specialist and the Dickinson Research Extension Center director.
John Brose, Special to Agweek
G Focus and consideration should be at the heart of all cattle operations, with an emphasis on genetics.
AGWEEK / Monday, December 22, 2014 - PAGE 23
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