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Let’s face it. For the decade of
the nineties, and certainly well into the first seven years of
the 21st century, we Americans were living in a “Super-Size”
society. When you order lunch you are offered an array of
options that are always bigger and better. Triple meat
hamburgers, 72 oz. sodas, a shoebox size pile of French fries,
and we pack it all out to our SUV or 1 ton pickup and off we go.
Heck, I think my own television is bigger than my 12 year old
son. The beef industry has been just as bad by encouraging
maximum output with little to no consideration for inputs.
We all love our 800 lb. weaned
calves, but not until very recently have we been forced to take
such a sharp look at the input side of the equation. For the
first time in my life, I am looking for the cow that can get by
on $200 less feed than my neighbors, not the one that weaned 40
lbs. more calf than his. The easiest way to impact the input
side is to moderate our mature cowherd.
For many people the word moderate reminds them of the little
pumpkins from the fifties that were no good, had little muscle
and were disgustingly fat. And every one of us at some point in
time still “sell ‘em by the pound”. I can’t agree more. Small,
fat, light-muscled cattle have no place in today’s industry, nor
do small, inefficient, poor-doing cattle either. Height is one
thing; muscle, width, and pounds are another. Just because I
said moderate doesn’t mean I am willing to compromise feedlot
performance or carcass quality.
I don’t really care what frame
score cattle you prefer, there are good ones in a lot of
different sizes; we need to remember that beef cattle are three
dimensional. Height alone is a poor measure of volume or
performance. A 4 to 5 frame, wide-based, deep-bodied cow can
easily weigh 1300- 1450 lbs. in a body condition score of 6.
Mated properly, she can easily produce a steer that will gain
3.5 pounds or better, have a 14 inch rib eye, and grade choice,
YG2 at 1225-1300lbs in 14-16 months. Conversely, a frame 7,
narrow based, flat-sided cow may weigh 1600 lbs in the same
condition, but requires a bigger pile of feed to maintain her
and may wean a calf that takes an extra 30-60 days in the
feedlot and kills at 1450 lbs. or more. Those steers became a
whole lot less desirable about the time corn hit $5/bu. Today
corn is at $6.48/bu.
Surprisingly, we as seedstock producers have very few ways to
measure input costs vs. outputs to calculate profitability.
Therefore selection has generally rewarded the highest output.
One of the best measurements for keeping mature cow size in
balance is to calculate the percentage of mature body weight
weaned. Calf weaning weight/cow body weight at weaning. I hear a
lot of talk about 60% figures, but even the best herds rarely
reach 50%, the mid forties is where most end up. Some of the
best commercial herds that do a good job of controlling mature
cow size in the 1200 lb. range are able to exceed the 50% mark.
Whatever you decide is the ideal
cow size for your operation, I think those who really put a
pencil to the profit equation will soon find that
moderate-framed, easy-fleshing, sound, fertile cows will fit the
bill. I am tired of hearing that registered cattle need to be a
frame score bigger than commercial. That may be good for
terminal breeds, but I prefer to think of Angus as a maternal
breed. I’ll bet a lot of our customers do as well…Now for the
real question, how many of you have actually ever measured your
entire cowherd, not calves, but mature cows. It’s pretty hard to
quantify or change what we don’t measure.
Best of Luck,
Jeff Schmidt
WSAA Director
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