Efficient. Sustainable. Profitable. Productive. Economical.
They feel like buzzwords, yet they’ve maintained their lofty position in the cattle industry zeitgeist for long enough now that it’s impossible to shy away from the inevitability – and even merit – of defining and reaching for such ideals. Topics ranging from epigenetics to bull marketing to liver abscesses were covered during the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium held in Knoxville, Tennessee, June 10-14, but the overriding theme was one of developing cattle and business models that prove efficient, sustainable and profitable.
“We worked hard to put together a program that focused on how genetics can make our cows more efficient,” said Troy Rowan, a professor of genomics at the University of Tennessee and one of the event’s primary organizers. “There is nothing like having this group of forward-thinking producers, scientists, students, extension professionals and industry partners in the same room, thinking about how we … make beef production better.”
Multiple presenters spoke about cow size as a potential pothole in the way the industry evaluates animal efficiency. It’s a widely acknowledged fact that the average cow in the U.S. is markedly larger than her predecessors from 50 years ago. In recent years, producers have been more proactive about accommodating for that larger animal with their grazing and nutrition plans. But the relationship between cow size and feed intake isn’t necessarily linear.
“Cow size is largely used as a proxy measurement for feed intake,” said Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Specialist David Lalman. “But what would be wrong with moderate-intake cows that weigh more?”
The point Lalman drove home was that achieving high carcass yield and quality grades at the lowest possible cost should drive genetic progress. He believes the industry needs to work together to more fully understand how well expected progeny differences (EPDs) related to feed intake and efficiency actually apply to mother cows that never experience the optimized feeding environment of a feedlot. Developing a reliable EPD for body condition score (BCS), Lalman said, could pay big dividends for cow-calf producers the world over.
“Animals that display a higher output in a particular environment,” he said, “typically have lower maintenance requirements,” making them profitable looking from either side of the profitability lens.
Fenco Farms of Floral City, Florida, was presented with the BIF's 2024 Commercial Producer of the Year Award. Photo courtesy of BIF.
Mark Thallman, a research geneticist with the USDA’s Meat Animal Research Center, presented some potential solutions for what he sees as a problem in the industry. He believes that many commercial cow-calf producers have overcorrected in the direction of selecting for maternal traits, and it has come at the unnecessary expense of producing the best animals for consumption.
“A lot of our breeds need to decide whether they’re a maternal or terminal breed. Most of them want to be both,” he said. “The most efficient system is to have smaller cows bred to high-growth bulls, up to the line of dystocia risk.”
Kenny Wells, beef genetic program development lead at ABS Global, echoed the sentiment in his own presentation: “Decoupling maternal and terminal breeding decisions allows for laser focus on creating the right calf from every mating, even natural-service matings.”
Thallman pointed to a major challenge the beef industry faces when it comes to genetic improvement that, for example, pork and poultry don’t: the diversity of environments in which cattle are raised.
“Focus on fewer traits allows for faster progress per trait,” he said. “Essentially all production in pork and poultry is focused on maternally focused females bred to terminal line sires. However, in beef cattle production, more traits are important because of a diverse, variable production environment.”
Which brought Thallman to the challenge producers face. To raise their own replacement females, about half of the cow herd needs to be bred to bulls heavy on maternal traits. This means that around half the steer calves will be bred for maternal rather than terminal traits – and, of course, none will pass on any of those maternal traits. Thallman suggested that the most profitable solution for a lot of commercial cow-calf producers might be to take a page from the pork and poultry industries and implement a terminal crossbreeding program. Such a program simply involves breeding maternal-focused females to terminal-focused bulls, then purchasing replacement heifers either as yearlings or bred 2-year-olds. It’s a long-term proposition with a lot of moving parts, Thallman acknowledged.
“A lot of the industry could be more effective if they would focus on raising terminal calves and purchasing replacements,” he said. “But it would only be effective if we had producers focused on raising replacement females. Making that happen is not trivial.”
Awards presented
As part of the symposium, the BIF presented several awards to members of the North American beef industry who have helped propel the industry forward through their pursuits of genetic improvement. Among them were the following:
- Commercial Producer of the Year: Fenco Farms, Floral City, Florida
- Seedstock Producer of the Year: Red Hill Farms, Lafayette, Tennessee
- Continuing Service Award: Tommy Clark, Mystic Hill Farms, Culpeper, Virginia; Andra Nelson, University of Georgia; Todd Thrift, University of Florida; Joe Mushrush, Mushrush Red Angus, Strong City, Kansas; Justin Rhinehart, University of Tennessee
- Ambassador Award: Scarlett Hagins Madinger, Kansas Livestock Association
- Pioneer Award: Darrh Bullock, University of Kentucky; Jon Beever, University of Tennessee
Presentations from the 2024 BIF Symposium can be found at the Beef Improvement Federation website.
