“There are many things besides just genetics and time on feed that affect marbling and we now know, we can say with confidence, that it is a lifetime event,” said Scott, who addressed attendees at last fall’s Feeding Quality Forums in South Sioux City, Neb., and Garden City, Kan.

What & How
Although it’s not all about genetics, that’s where quality gets its start. Scott used Japanese Wagyu cattle as an example.
“They are different critters because they can marble on higher-roughage diets than other breeds,” he said. “They also have more DNA that will make adipocytes, or cells that will become marbling.”

So, to produce high-quality beef, one must start with cattle that have the potential to reach that endpoint.
Then they have to feed them right.
“If we can increase glucose, we have a chance of affecting marbling,” Scott said, noting that grain-based diets result in more glucose than forage-based ones. Glucose is the precursor that causes cells to differentiate into marbling cells.
“Once you create them, then we have to fill them up,” he said.
Creep feeding, for example, could help, but starch seems to be the key.
When

And it’s not just diet type, but when it’s fed.
Fetal programming is the idea that future performance and quality is affected by what a calf’s mother eats during pregnancy.
“The beef cow is truly the most undernourished female we have in the livestock industry during gestation,” Scott said.
“Range nutritionists talk about wanting cows to maintain their condition during winter so they can get rebred,” he said. “We never really talk about maintaining their condition so their calf crop will perform. That’s a big deal.”

Once the calves hit the ground, it seems getting them on feed early can move the quality needle. Studies at the University of Illinois show early-weaning calves on corn-based diets could more than double the number reaching the premium Choice category.

“Basically, they’re maximizing the lifetime grain intake of the calf, so we’re getting more corn into those cattle early on in their life,” he said.
Regardless of weaning age, the plane of nutrition should continue on a steady or upward trek.

“With stocker cattle, the key thing that we like to see is consistency on average daily gain,” Scott said. “Any time a calf goes backwards in gain, then you’re running the risk of reducing energy intake and you risk pulling out some of the marbling.”
More than just nutrition affects those gains.
Where
“We need to recognize that fat cells are very dynamic, which means they can be filled and, just like our gas tank, they can be emptied,” he said. “How can they be emptied? With sickness, nutrition, environment and management.”
Where those cattle are fed and how they minimize outside stressors can have a huge impact.

“If you talk to feeders in the southwest part of the U.S., one environmental factor that they hate is dust,” Scott said. “Why? Cattle inhale the dust, get sick and don’t eat. Cattle that don’t eat aren’t going to grade.”
Moisture might calm the dust, but it introduces other problems: “A wet hair coat and mud. And mud on a wet hair coat increases maintenance requirements; therefore you have less feed left over to go toward gain and marbling.”

Iowa’s Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity data points to health’s role in the process. Compared to untreated cattle, there’s nearly a 15-point drop in cattle grading Choice and higher when they must be treated twice.
“Keeping cattle healthy is vital if we’re trying to maximize marbling,” he said.
All of these factors work together and the final report card comes from a packing plant grader.

“If you’re feeding or raising cattle, we need to know more than just the pay weight,” Scott said. “We need to understand nutrition at the cowherd level and all the interactions that go on to affect marbling.”

The forums were co-sponsored by Certified Angus Beef LLC (CAB), Pfizer Animal Health, Land O’ Lakes Purina Feed LLC and Feedlot magazine. BeefCast covered the meetings, making audio and PowerPoint versions of the presentations available at http://www.beefcast.com/2009-certified-angus-beef-feeding-quality-forum.

When you count your blessings this holiday season, remember to include the ones disguised as challenges. Some of them you decided to take on as calculated risks; others intruded on your farm or in your life, but turned out to be “mixed blessings.”

The challenges you have willingly taken on may include another off-farm job, a bank loan, new cattle enterprises, expansion, relocation or going into business with other family members.

Everything that happens could be graded on a scale of desirability. You could even find fault with most blessings, because nothing’s perfect for every situation. Some areas had an abundance of moisture, but too much meant late crop planting, poor-quality hay or flood damage.

Nobody wants a drought, but it can force you to make decisions you resist in better times.

A Texas rancher recently reported, “We culled deeply, and at a loss, just to keep our pastures alive. The silver lining is that we culled so deeply that we got to cull on our wish-list traits, such as disposition, mature size and body conformation, and not just on open and age.

“As a result, we ended up with the cowherd we’ve been breeding for, even if it’s much smaller than we’d planned.”

You have to deal with unpredictable weather and markets each year, looking for ways to hedge risk and play the hand you’re dealt. In the words of one old country song, “We’re all just making the best of a bad situation.”

Every decision weighs risk, the possibility of a negative outcome. How much risk there is depends on how much you know or care about the outcome.

From an economist’s perspective, worrying about risk keeps producers focused on the optimum rather than maximum production, quality or price. Whether it is the free market or government regulation, anything that restricts the ideal or maximum could be a mixed blessing.

Knowledge of risk affects behavior, and ignorance is not always bliss or even partial bliss. Didn’t know the sale-barn bull was sterile? Sometimes those former herd sires are sold by the pound because their breeding career is over.

Bulls in general have been called worse than a mixed blessing, a necessary evil. But that’s too harsh. Granted, their management creates special challenges, but those motivate us to construct better facilities.

Not all of those who own cows rely on them for a living, but anyone can adopt a businesslike approach. Cows should pay their way while producing calves that are more blessing than curse. Wild cattle that turn into lingering chronics before they become tough, dry beef have few redeeming qualities.

Over the years, more and more technology has been developed to help produce cattle profitably; some of it even helps in meeting consumer demand for high-quality beef. It can also help you learn what your calves do in the feedlot and packing plant. Bad news from those sectors could be seen as a dark cloud, but the silver lining is the fact that you can use it to improve your herd.

Bulls are necessary of course; the right ones can even turn out to be a blessing if selected carefully and through the use of tools such as expected progeny differences (EPDs) to find a balance from pasture to plate.

They exert long-term influence through their daughters, which may be the ultimate mixed blessing. Replacement heifers require post-weaning management and development; then it could be another year or two before they produce a paycheck. Still, they are often the best way to adapt better beef genetics to fit your resources.

With every decision, there is a risk, a choice of how your future will take shape, and it could involve other people as well. They’re called consumers.

To everyone who reads this, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

It has been one of those years. Unsettled markets, fluctuating fuel prices, uncertain financial futures for many. Some of us have been challenged by illnesses, family dynamics, job losses – and a gamut of other things that only you may know about. Many of these circumstances may seem to be enough to beat us down, to snuff out our spirits, and make us forget the things we have to be thankful for.

But it is when we ARE faced with such challenges that we need to train ourselves to stop dragging our chins on the ground AND START COUNTING OUR BLESSINGS!

I have had the privilege of meeting many new friends this year. Many of these acquaintances have been made in an unlikely setting – a medium-sized hospital - and the common denominator of us all is that we are doing our best to support and care for loved ones who are critically ill, injured, or are dying. Over an extended period of time, I have met and interacted with so many inspirational people, literally ranging from age 3 to age 103.

Although I promised I wouldn’t mention many real names, I would like to share a few examples of the inspirational people I have met:

Sadie, age 17, isn’t shy and wants me to use her name on this Thanksgiving blog –
Sadie is at the hospital because her boyfriend Seth suffered extreme head injuries after being hit by a drunk driver in January, 2009. Sadie comes every single day to the hospital to see Seth (except for 2 days when she had the flu) and then she sent her sister to fill in for her … Seth is in a coma, but Sadie is convinced that she can make a difference and that Seth is going to wake up any day, with her help. Sadie does homework with Seth OUT LOUD each day so he will not fall behind too much in his school classes, because he wants to be a research doctor, and she just knows he can hear her. Her faith never waivers – and I have to say I have never met a teen with such pure faith and thankfulness in her heart – her attributes put many with more life experience to shame. Sadie is thankful and wanted to share this with anyone who reads this blog:
“I am thankful for my family who allows me to come here every day and takes my devotion to Seth and his future seriously. I am thankful that Seth didn’t die in that accident because I know he has so much to offer the future, and drunk drivers don’t deserve to take another life from Seth’s family, or any family, for that matter. And I am thankful for everyone who comes in to encourage me from time to time, too. It is not easy, but I know I am supposed to be here, no matter what.”

I am thankful for having met Sadie; at 17 years old, she has wisdom of the ages and a thankful spirit way beyond her years.

An elderly friend I have made, who I will call “Ralph”, is 83 years old:
Ralph has lived through wars (World War II and a special stint as a consultant in Vietnam), two house fires, and a mugging in Washington D.C. that happened when he was summoned to receive a prestigious medal from President Clinton.
Ralph’s reason for being at this hospital is his adult son, who has end-stage organ failure from cerebral palsy. Ralph has been a widower for 11 years now. He never thought he would be the first to go, and misses his wife dearly, but Ralph is thankful. He is thankful to have been able to serve his country. He tells me that once you are sent to another country under war conditions, “if you have half a brain, you never forget to be thankful for living in the United States.” Ralph tells me his son is very close to going home to being with the Lord, and Ralph is extra thankful that he has been able to be around to care for his son at home.

Ralph puts things in perspective for me.

There are other examples, too:

The family with 6 children under age 13 who have unexpectedly added premature twins to their bulging household after both parents recently lost their jobs. Family members come every day to give their preemies love and interaction. How much can one family take? In a situation that is far less than ideal by today’s standards, this family pulls together in ways that are inspirational. The grandparents have taken on the care of the youngest children, and each grandparent and many aunts and uncles have added a paper route to their early mornings to put some money into the family’s tills. Their love never waivers, and each child in that family knows they are loved, valued, and will be taught responsibilities necessary to be productive and decent adults. The parents of this growing family, although they are faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges now, continue to profess their thanksgiving for a healthy family, their tiny, beautiful baby girls, a place to live, and the love they all share.
Their family photo could be on a poster professing the word “Thankful.” What inspirations they all are!

I also met an over-the-road trucker whose liver is failing after years of what he calls “hard drinking” before he bought his semi-truck and went over the road. He is thankful – for having seen the beautiful places he drove to, for a faithful, loving wife, and for being sober for 13 years now.

I am very thankful for having met all these folks, and others I have not mentioned for the sake of space. They have done more for my spirit of thankfulness than they will ever know.

Times are tough for many of us right now, but things will get better. Start watching every day for things you have to be thankful for – after all, it’s not just turkey that this day is about. But don’t limit your vigilance to only Thanksgiving Day! EVERY day we have much to be thankful for. Every day we wake up is a bonus. Please don’t take it for granted.

‘Til next time,
Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving from the folks Midwestern Cattle Marketing and me (Tracy).

He’s referring to the startling results of a study recently completed by the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management (KRIRM). It reveals that over the past eight years King Ranch has made the equivalent average profit of $300/calf raised by selling those calves and then buying back others to background, stocker and feed. If King Ranch had simply retained ownership in its own calves through its own feedyard, the average profit for those eight years would have been $8/head.

Delaney is quick to point out that the study doesn’t account for risk management. In fact, he was reluctant to make the study public out of fear the results would blind folks to the reasons that such a profit swing is possible.

It has everything to do with financial concepts that allow cattle producers to overcome two basic but vexing marketing challenges: low margins and infrequent sales.

“A critical concept to understand is that in a low-margin business such as groceries, the merchandise usually turns over rapidly,” explains Barry Dunn, KRIRM executive director, who directed the study. “In a high-margin business such as diamond jewelry, the turnover is usually slower. Cattle marketing typically represents the worst of both worlds: it’s both low margin and low turnover.”

The first step is to list the dead calves. Hopefully, your cattle are in a record system that will provide that information. Your calving notebook should have the dead calves checked off and a brief notation on what happened to each. Until all the calves are listed, the shock of lost opportunities hasn’t had its full impact, according to Glen Selk, Oklahoma State University Extension cattle reproduction specialist.

Can you identify a pattern of problems?

Was most of the death loss right at delivery and involved two-year-old heifers? This could indicate that more careful sire selection is needed, with more attention being paid to low birth weight EPD sires for heifers.

Perhaps the heifers were underdeveloped, which could contribute to more calving difficulty than necessary. Do you provide assistance to heifers after they’ve been in stage II of labor for one hour? Longer deliveries result in stress on both calf and cow.

Was the death loss more prevalent after the calves reached 10-14 days of age? This, of course, often means calf diarrhea (or scours) is a major concern. Calf scours are more likely to occur in calves from first-calf heifers. Calves receiving inadequate amounts of colostrum within the first six hours of life are five to six times more likely to die from calf scours.

Calves born to thin heifers are weakened at birth and receive less colostrum, which compounds their likelihood of scours. Often, these same calves underwent difficult deliveries, which add to the odds of sickness and death. All this means we need to reassess the bred-heifer growing program to ensure that heifers are in a body condition score of 6 (moderate flesh) at calving time.

Do you use the same trap or pasture each year for calving? A buildup of bacteria or viruses in that pasture can contribute to calf diarrhea. Such calving pastures may need a rest for the upcoming calving season. Plus, it’s always a good idea to get new calves and their mothers out of the calving pasture as soon as they can be moved comfortably to a new pasture to get them away from other potential calf scour organisms.

Visit with your veterinarian about last spring’s calf health problems. Pre-calving scours vaccines (to the cows) may be recommended by your veterinarian for this winter and spring. This decision must be made soon, so that the vaccine is given soon enough to provide the best possible passive immunity to the newborn calf. This should be considered an important short-term plan to reduce the incidence of calf diarrhea. We must however, enlist the other management suggestions as more long-term solutions to the problem.

Just ADDED: Listing 2
Great Alfalfa Wilsonville, NE. Stem Size: Medium;
Grade: Medium;
Color: Green/Golden Brown; Leaf Retention: Poor;
Cutting: 2nd; Bale: 3×4. Est Bale Weight: 1300 lbs.
# of tons per load 25. #of loads 1. Total Est Tons 25.
(Lab Olsens Ag Lab. Moisture 12.4; RFV 109; Protein 16.7%; ADF 39.5)
2nd Cutting, One Rain on it. Cut 31 Days.
All bids are in dollars per ton!

Visit eHayAuctions to bid on these loads or choose Buy It Now so you can get your hay on the road!

But Hurry! These Auctions end on November 19th.

www.ehayauctions.com

Great Alfalfa! Wilsonville, NE;
Grade: Medium; Stem Size: Large/Med;
Color: Green/Golden Brown; Leaf Retention: Good; Cutting: 2nd;
Bale Type: 3×4;Estimated Bale Weight 1300 lbs.;
#of tons per load 25; # of loads 1;
Total estimated tons=25;
(Lab-Olsens Ag Lab; Moisture 13.3; RFV 115; Protein 20; ADF 38.1)
2nd cutting, One rain at 32 days.
All Bids are in dollars per Ton!

Visit eHayAuctions to bid on this load or choose Buy It Now!

But Hurry! This Auction ends November 19th, or sooner if someone gets to it first.

Watch for more great listings here in future blogs.

Have a great weekend!

More properly, the next item would be nutrition during late gestation. New results from the University of Nebraska’s West Central Research and Extension Center say cow nutrition in the months before calving can determine their calves’ future production.
This is called fetal programming.

“There’s a positive effect on heifer fertility, which is important to ranchers for sure, and then there was also a benefit to weaning weights in some cases,” says Rick Funston, a researcher who has been involved in three different multi-year studies on the topic.

When they followed steer calves through the feedlot, another result became apparent.

“The greatest impact was on quality grade, and marbling.

Funston’s work focused on protein supplementation during the late fall and early winter.

“That’s traditionally when producers would supplement cows, in that dormant grazing period,” he says. Other fetal programming work has looked at early- to mid-gestation nutrition, but Funston says that’s rarely a period for concern.

“Unless we’re in a drought, that’s really a non-issue in beef production in spring-calving herds,” he says.

The latest study divided cows into four groups. For three years in a row they were either grazing native pasture or corn stalks, and then they were split again with half receiving supplement and half not.

Both of the groups fed a daily pound of 28% crude protein supplement showed calf benefits, but the effects were more apparent for those on winter range. Funston says that’s probably because they were the most nutrient deficient, thus the results were magnified.

Although the supplemented cows went into calving in better body condition, all had similar pregnancy rates in the next breeding season.

“In all of our studies, supplementation almost never had an impact on birth weights, but it apparently impacts a metabolic system that provides a different gain and type of deposition,” Funston says.

The steers whose mothers were supplemented on range had a 48-pound (lb.) advantage in weaning weight, and they maintained that edge through harvest. Their carcasses were nearly 42 lb. heavier.

For those who own the cattle at harvest, the real payout comes in the form of greater carcass quality grade and carcass weights.

“The increase translated to a $47 advantage in carcass value,” Funston says.

The reproduction benefit to heifer calves might come from the fact that certain nutrients can alter blood flow to the fetus and those same nutrients could affect hormone secretion.

The important practical note in all of this, says Funston, is that it’s more about keeping cows in good body condition than anything else.

“I’m not saying supplementation is the magic treatment. It’s probably total cow nutrition,” Funston says. “It might be achieved by supplementation or by higher condition going into winter.”

He recommends ranchers look at what feedstuffs are available locally, and those planning to feed harvested forage should test for protein content. Early weaning could reduce the need for supplementation, so that’s one more consideration in fitting economics to each producer’s system.

Many of you winter cows on corn stalks or other crop residues. Do you also sometimes feed grass or prairie hay to supplement those stalks? If you do, double check to learn if those hay fields were sprayed with herbicides before hay was cut earlier this year.

If your hayfield was treated with Milestone or ForeFront or Chaparral herbicide, residues of those herbicides will still be in the hay. It won’t hurt your animals but those herbicide residues will pass through your animals in their manure and urine.

So what, you ask? Well, if you plant that field to beans or alfalfa or another sensitive crop next spring, that herbicide residue may prevent those crops from growing wherever the manure and urine fell. Also, any of that hay that is not eaten but remains in the field also can release the herbicide residue and prevent crop growth. To prevent this problem, don’t feed treated hay to cattle while they are on potentially sensitive fields. And if they are already eating treated hay, stop feeding it three days before moving them on to sensitive fields so the residue has time to pass through the animals before being deposited in the fields.

One last thing – avoid spreading manure from animals that were fed hay treated with Milestone, ForeFront, or Chaparral on potentially sensitive fields. Next year’s crop could be affected by herbicides in the hay you feed this winter. Double check now to avoid losses later.

If Wal-Mart were in the cattle business, it would probably serve as an operating definition of “least-cost producer.” People might refer to its cowherd enterprise as the model for slashing expenses.

That’s the way to make more money in this margin business, isn’t it? The simple economic equation is income minus expenses equals profit, so it’s only natural to want to shrink fixed costs. But it might pay to give some thought to the top line.

Wal-Mart’s trademark smiley face happily rolls back prices. On the outside of every store are four words that no beef producer would be proud to utter at the coffee shop: “We sell for less.”

After all, bragging rights belong to those who top the market, to those who best the fetching price of all their neighbors’ calves.

In that same equation, increased income while holding expenses steady would also get you more net profit.

With today’s markets and the uncertainty surrounding many issues that could take away from your bottom line, it makes sense to take a long, hard look at areas where you can become more efficient. That’s a worthy goal, but not necessarily if it comes at the cost of long-term income potential.

Let’s say in the name of savings you back off your vaccination program or give it the axe altogether. Buyers will notice. You might get a lower price this year, or buyers may take note of the increased health risk and refuse to bid on your calves again.

A lower quality bull could fill the basic needs with a smaller initial price tag, but at what cost? Lighter and slower growing calves, decreased demand, lower quality grades and less desirable replacements? The same goes for cutting pasture inputs or giving up a mineral program. These are effects that could cut your bottom line more deeply than they save a buck today.

Turning your focus to the other profit variable will help with lasting results.

Documenting age and source will allow you to capture premiums. Research proves if you market calves in load-lots you’ll get a higher price. For smaller producers, that might mean pooling with a neighbor or getting involved in an alliance program. Graded, breed- or breeder-sponsored calf sales can add value and give you exposure to more buyers.

Improved genetics for growth, marbling and muscle can increase profit and actually cut costs if you keep cowherd function in mind.

Communicating all of this added-value is the key to capturing it. Even Wal-Mart announces when it’s investing in new stores or a new product line.

Create a resume for your calves so all of their qualities are announced from the auction block. Or, consider retaining ownership. You know better than anyone how much those calves are worth.

You might have to reverse your thinking. Get out of the cutting and slashing mindset and you won’t have to keep rolling back prices to sell your calves. Embrace an attitude of building, growing and adding income. Just think of it as a more stable route to your ultimate goal of putting more black ink on your bottom line.