Animal Sciences Commons^™

Calving Difficulty, Robert G. Mortimer

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The recognition of abnormal calving (dystocia) comes FIRST from a basic understanding of normal calving. From this understanding, the establishment of guidelines for observation of cattle and for intervention will reduce calf losses. In Colorado, as part of a pilot program of the National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS), two-thirds of the costs of disease losses were associated with death loss. From a subset of 73 of the 86 NAHMS herds in studied in 1986- 87 in 24,396 births, 4.5% of the calves were lost. Of the 4.5% losses, 34% were attributed to dystocia related losses. In addition, losses attributed …

Empowering People, Burke Teichert

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Empowerment is a function of systems, attitudes and access. A ranching system is a grouping of subsystems which includes biological, climatic, business, financial and managerial processes. The system may be structured to enable and encourage or to impede empowerment of the team members. Access to ideas, research, training, tools, mentoring, modeling, etc. is vital to high level empowering. If the system is right, then the attitudes of the people involved will determine how much empowerment will take place.

Bosses and managers don't empower people. They enable and facilitate, but people at all levels of reporting are responsible for their own …

Addressing The Beef Tenderness Problem, Chris R. Calkins

Range Beef Cow Symposium

We've all heard time and again the importance of beef tenderness to customer satisfaction. Research continually supports this concept. In the Beef Customer Satisfaction report from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, tenderness was highly correlated to consumer ratings of their satisfaction with the product (r=.85), as was flavor desirability (r=.86). Recent focus group participants in a session discussing beef quality were quick to identify tenderness as one of the primary descriptors to quality. There is no doubt that tenderness is a critical characteristic of beef and providing product which does not meet consumer expectations will definitely reduce satisfaction with the …

Realities Of Cow Herd Genetics: Expectations And Impact, Don Marshall

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Beef cattle production in the United States remains largely a segmented rather than integrated industry. The needs and goals of the various segments of the production chain, with respect to production specification targets, are often different and sometimes conflicting. The resulting inadequate response of the industry to consumer needs has occurred at the same time as intensified competition from pork and poultry products, each of which has contributed to the decline of beef consumption.

Seedstock and commercial cow-calf producers represent particularly important links in the beef production chain because they have primary control of the genetics and produce the ''raw …

Bull Genetics: Purebreds, Composites, Full-Sibs And Half-Sibs, James A. Gosey

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Expected Progeny Differences (EPD's) are currently calculated for a range of traits important to ranch profitability. These EPD's are mostly used for bull selection within a breed. The list of traits for which EPD's are available is certainly not complete; notable exceptions are reproduction and fitness traits plus some measure of tenderness. Across-breed EPD adjustments are available to provide a basis for comparing bulls of different breeds. EPD's for composite bulls can be calculated but are mostly confined to within herd data without the benefit of data base sharing between breeds. The perceived desire for uniformity and consistency may encourage …

Selection Emphasis For Carcass Traits, John Crouch

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Carcass evaluation for the Angus breed was conceived by Dr. Richard Willham and co-researchers at Iowa State University in 1972 as part of the original sire evaluation program. This very structured program consisted of random mating schemes throughout several commercial herds using the same set of bulls. These sires were later referred to as the original set of reference sires for the Angus breed and served as foundation benchmarks for future evaluation.

This structured sire evaluation program is still in place. While it has been refined and altered by Dr. Doyle Wilson to fit today's needs, the basic principles are …

Breeding For Profit: An Introduction To Selection Index Concepts, M. D. Macneil, R. A. Nugent, W. M. Snelling

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The selection problem, that of choosing which individuals become parents, is inherent in all of beef production. This problem almost invariably involves evaluating animals on more than one trait and making compromises among traits to arrive at a final evaluation of each candidate for selection. In a capitalist society, profitability seems a logical unit of expression for that final evaluation. It is certainly the basis of evaluation intended in the original development of selection index in the animal sciences (Hazel and Lush, 1942; Hazel, 1943). Thus, a desire on the part of producers to maximize profitability is assumed throughout this …

Basic Immunology, Lynn F. Woodward

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The immune system can be thought of as a surveillance system to discriminate between “self" and "non-self." From simple life forms such as insects to advanced life forms such as humans, all living organisms have some form of host defense mechanism. Most have multiple, overlapping mechanisms ranging from very non-specific resistance to highly specific immunity. White blood cells forming "pus" around a splinter is representative of non-specific host resistance to invasion while immunity to IBR virus after vaccination or following recovery from active infection is representative of specific active immunity.

These host defense systems protect livestock and man from the …

Bovine Viral Diarrhea, Hana Van Campen

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) is a common viral infection of cattle worldwide. The viruses responsible for BVD are classified as pestiviruses, a group of viruses that includes BVDV type I and type II, Border disease virus of sheep and hog cholera virus. Although BVD was first recognized as a disease of cattle 50 years ago, the genetics and epidemiology of BVD viruses have only been well-described in the last 10 years. These scientific advances have increased the accuracy of diagnostic testing for BVD and clarified the diseases caused by BVD viruses.

BVD is a confusing topic because the viruses cause …

Overview Of A Tqm Approach For Improving Beef Tenderness, J. D. Tatum, M. H. George, K. E. Belk, G. C. Smith

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Steers and heifers comprising the U.S. "fed" beef supply are highly variable in biological type, age, and management background (most are grain-finished, but they are started on feed at different ages, given different growth promoting implants, fed for differing periods of time, and slaughtered at different ages). The beef industry's current system for ensuring acceptable product tenderness involves "mass inspection" (USDA Quality Grading) of completed products (carcasses) at the end of the production process. Although this system results in general categorization according to tenderness differences, product value is lost due to inaccuracy of sorting methodology (Quality Grades account for approximately …

B-Maturity: Factors Affecting Physiological Maturity, J. Brad Morgan

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved a change in its grading system in 1996 that became effective January 31, 1997. All carcasses with overall maturity scores of "B'' (from cattle approximately 30 to 42 months of age at slaughter) and with Slight or Small degrees of marbling are excluded from the U.S. Choice and U.S. Select quality grades. In fact these carcasses will only be eligible for the U.S. Choice grade if they possess a minimum of Modest amount of marbling (Figure 1).

Reproductive Toxicology: Pine Needles And Plant Estrogens, R. E. Short, S. L. Kronberg, E. E. Grings, J. P. Rosazza, S. P. Ford

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Reproductive rate or efficiency, the number of live offspring produced from a herd of a specified number each year, is the main determinate of biological and economic efficiency of a beef cattle enterprise. Reproduction is a complex and continuous process that starts before birth and continues through puberty and a series of endocrine and behavioral events that include estrous cycles, breeding, conception, gestation, parturition, and lactation. The culmination of reproduction is live offspring produced for sale or for reentering the herd as replacements. Whenever any of these events are interfered with, reproductive rate and economic efficiency will decrease. In most …

Ingestion Of Ponderosa Pine Needles By Cattle, S. L. Kronberg, R. E. Short, E. E. Grings

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Given the relatively high fiber and moderate crude protein concentrations in Ponderosa pine needles (Adams et al., 1992; Pfister et al., 1992) and their potential negative effect on organic matter digestibility and nitrogen retention in ruminants (Adams et al., 1992), it is not readily apparent why cattle eat them. However, there are a number of ideas that may help explain why they do. Ponderosa pine needles contain a variety of nutrients and precursors including glucose, fructose, galactose, sucrose, citric acid, shikimic acid (a precursor in the biosynthesis of the amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan), crude protein (Pfister et al., …

Synchronization Programs Update, Tom Geary

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Synchronization of estrus involves methods of manipulating the estrous cycle of females within a herd so they express estrus at approximately the same time. There are several traditional protocols available for synchronizing estrus (heat) among beef cows. Traditional protocols include one or two Prostaglandin protocols, the MGA/prostaglandin protocol and the Syncro- Mate B protocol. None of these methods have been universally adopted because none are able to satisfy all situations. There are also a couple of new protocols that have been developed within the last 2 years that have resulted in higher success than traditional protocols. These new protocols include …

"Bull Fertility: Bse, Abnormalities, Etc.", Glenn H. Coulter

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Unlike the dairy breeder or feedlot operator, the beef breeder derives their entire income from calves born into the herd, making fertility unquestionably the most important trait to be considered in a breeding program. Economically, reproductive merit is 5 times more important to the cow-calf producer than growth performance and 10 times more important than product quality (e.g. carcass quality)20, at least until value based marketing becomes a reality. These figures refer to the relative importance of these traits for the beef herd in total and are further magnified when discussing the bull component alone as a result of the …

Factors Affecting Calf Survival, R. A. Bellows

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Survival of the calf at or shortly after birth can be compromised leading to high death losses and a serious impact on net income for the cattle producer. This paper will briefly review some findings related to causes of death of the newborn calf.

Cows And Computers: Choosing Records Management Software, Martha Malm Ellis

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Back in 1990, those of us at Malm Ranch Company decided it was becoming more and more difficult to keep accurate records on over 800 head of cows using the paper/pencil method-- especially when the "paper" ended up being the inside of boxes from our vaccines and Ivomec! So when my two kids and I returned to work at the ranch full time, I was given the job of computerizing the cattle records for our family farming/ranching operation. I started out using a data base program but soon found myself having to enter the same information over and over because …

Computer Software Selection: Financial, Kory M. Bierle

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Over and over we as producers are told we need to know our cost of production. As the title of my college accounting book stated, accounting is the basis for business decisions.

The question comes up: how do we track these costs and make sense of all the numbers? As soon as we realize the importance of the office work and the need to get it done in a timely and efficient manner, we address how to get it done. What has been the answer for the past 20 to 25 years to help get the work done? That's right, …

Networking People, Barry H. Dunn

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The word networking was one of the buzzwords of the eighties. More recently, it has become one of the hot topics of the swine industry. Networking has been defined as a means of gaining access to a set of advantages which by yourself, or with your own resources, you would not be able to acquire. So networking is about working with other people to gain an advantage. The advantage might be in marketing, information, purchasing, labor, or capital investments. There are examples of successful networks in every human endeavor. History is full of examples. But what does networking have to …

Characterization Of Alliances, Mike Miller

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Content:

Today’s Cattle Market

Future Cattle Market

“Average” Grid

The Target

“Value” Checklist

Factors to Consider

Potential Trade Offs

The Bottom Line: Does It Increase Profit

Pricing/Formula Grids: Which Fit And Which Don't Fit, Dillon M. Feuz

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Over the last couple of years there has been a much greater emphasis on improving the quality and consistency of beef. Cattle producers, breed associations, feed suppliers, and beef packers have all initiated new value based pricing methods. Grid pricing, formula pricing, and strategic alliances are examples of these new value based pricing methods. While these pricing methods may differ substantially in the carcass and management traits they seek to reward or penalize, they all have one common feature: price is established on each individual animal.

The goals of these new pricing methods are to price cattle based on their …

Fink Beef Genetics, Galen Fink

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Started in 1977 as a purebred Angus program based totally upon artificial insemination (AI), Fink Beef Genetics has been dedicated to breeding predictable performance for beef producers. It is a family-owned business that I operate with my wife Lori and our daughter Megan.

Recognizing the Angus breed for its maternal strength, we built our program by stacking generations of proven sires and great Angus cow families. The direct influence of landmark sires such as AAR New Trend and Emulation N Bar 5522 headline their foundation. The most important tool used in building our herd has been high accuracy EPDs of …

Carcass Value Marketing, Dick Kjerstad

Range Beef Cow Symposium

A. Importance of individual source identification as it relates to carcass value

B. Criteria for USDA Quality Grades

C. Criteria for USDA Yield Grades

Innovative Marketing And Angus America, Douglas Hoff

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Marketing sounds easy, right? All that you have to do is sell when the market is high and buy when it's low. The problem is that only God could accomplish this! Even if we had the time to do the research required to make these predictions they're still, at best, only educated guesses. How does a cow/calf producer market in an innovative manner when he only has the option to go to a sale barn, an order buyer, or a feedlot with his years' work, just to get the same average price?

Grazing Animal Diets: When To Supplement, Doug Zalesky

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Despite the fact that we live and operate in the age of technology, the age old question of precisely when to start or when to end supplementation of grazing animals remains. Often the determination of when to begin and when to end supplementation is not based on sound nutritional and/or economic reasons. Currently no one technology or gadget is available that precisely determines when that window of needed supplementation exists. Tradition and the educated guess method has served to make that decision.

The use of such programs as SPA (Standardized Performance Analysis) has allowed producers to more accurately determine the …

New National Research Council (Nrc) Beef Cattle Requirements - Range Application, Ivan G. Rush

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Beef producers have used experience and guidelines for many years to determine proper level of nutrition for their cow herd. In the early 1900s, research started to compare various feeding programs to determine which feeds or supplements worked best, and then comparisons were made on various levels of supplements to determine how much supplement was needed. In the 1920s, considerable research was conducted at the Valentine, Nebraska Experiment Station (no longer in existence) to see if calves wintered on sandhills range would benefit from cottonseed cake (cottonseed meal was large chunks or "cake" in the 1920s), and a series of …

Matching Calving Date With Forage Nutrients: Production And Economic Impacts, Richard T. Clark, Don C. Adams, Gregory P. Lardy, Terry J. Klopfenstein

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Reducing costs while maintaining production is one way to improve the economic performance of a cow-calf operation. In large parts of the beef cattle production area, feed cost is a major factor in determining overall economic efficiency. Harvested forages and purchased feed make up the majority of the total feed cost. A major goal of our work has been to research cow-calf production systems that improve the economic and overall sustainability of the cow-calf operation. Given that feed costs are such an important component of most cow-calf operations we have focused our research on ways to reduce those costs without …

Market Outlook, Mike Miller

Range Beef Cow Symposium

Content:

Total Cattle Inventory

Heifers as % of Total Feedlot Placements

Cow Slaughter

Total Cow Numbers

Feeder Cattle and Calf Supply

Steer and Heifer Slaughter

Beef Production

What Will the 1997 Corn Market Look Like?

1997 Corn Production and Price Situation

Seasonal Fed Cattle Price

Seasonal 750-lb Feeder Steer Price

Average Cow/Calf Profit (Loss)

Cow/Calf Producer Profitability

US Average Choice Fed Steer Price, 1970-1997

Cattle Prices

The Cattle Cycle

Profit Trends by Industry Segment During the Four Phases of the Cattle Cycle

1997 Outlook

1998 Outlook

1999 Outlook

2000 Outlook

Proceedings, The Range Beef Cow Symposium Xv. December 9, 10 And 11, 1997, Rapid City, South Dakota

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The Range Beef Cow Symposium is sponsored by the Cooperative Extension Service and Animal Science Departments of South Dakota State University, Colorado State University, the University of Wyoming and the University of Nebraska. The Symposium has a reputation of being an excellent educational program for commercial cow-calf producers, industry and Extension personnel. It is held every other year with the location rotating among the cooperating states.

Agenda and Proceedings Contents

Morning Ramrod: Dr. Jim Males, Head, Department of Animal & Range Sciences, South Dakota State University

Welcome - Dr. Robert Wagner, President, South Dakota State University

Industry Issues

Food Safety …

Nutritional Value Of Grazed Forages And How It Fits The Cow’S Requirement, Don C. Adams, Richard T. Clark, Terry J. Klopfenstein, Jerry D. Volesky

Range Beef Cow Symposium

The concept of matching nutrients available in grazed forages with nutrient requirements of the cow has been reviewed and recommended as a means to most efficiently utilize grazed forages (Valentine 1990, Vavra and Raleigh 1976). We further develop the principles and concepts necessary to improve the match between forage quality and the cow's nutrient needs and discuss potential impacts on management and production cost.