BEEF PRODUCER'S VIEWS Concerning Beef Cattle Production

Take a few minutes and read this Beef Producer's Views. Posted 10-20-97. He desires anonymity at this time. I believe you will find his views interesting. He has some criticisms of my initial comments. I believe we need a total cooperative effort by all breeders within each beef breed, and across all beef breeds and breed associations.

Why so few EPD balanced bulls and cows?

The answer to your question about why there are so few across the board EPD balanced bulls and cows is quite simple. Genetic antagonisms for one. The statistics tell us that a bull who is in the top 15% of the population for all traits is going to be extremely rare. I can not believe you are attacking the A.I. studs on this issue. It is difficult to find a bull that comes up to my sire sorts that are not leased by a major AI stud. The one's that are not [leased] are bulls the owners have usually elected to market on their own. The thing that I find sad about this situation is that many of the bulls are then relegated to being used strictly in the purebred industry and will never see widespread commercial use. This is because individual owners do not have the marketing strength to carry these outstanding genetics outside of their own limited marketing reach. The simple fact is that these AI studs are selecting bulls; granted to the best of their ability; based on their economic contributions.

Breeder Reputation - Integrity - Pedigree

The cold hard reality is that pedigree and breeder reputation and integrity probably contributes to their decision. Fortunately, it also contributes to the decision of those people who are purchasing semen, whether they be purebred breeders or commercial cattlemen. How many of these balanced trait cattle, that are not being used and promoted, are out of AI sires? I would guess the majority of them! My only conclusion is that by balanced trait cattle you are talking about solid cattle that are actually very average in terms of their genetic merit. [Far above average in economically important productive traits & balanced EPD traits.]

Small Breeders' Dilemma

I would agree that small breeders have a more difficult time getting bulls proven. However, it is not the responsibility of AI studs to make proofs for all of the young bulls in a breed that show promise. There job is to find and to promote the bulls that they are confident can make a contribution to their perspective breeds and to the commercial industry.

Working Together - Hollow Ring

Your talk about all of the segments of the beef industry working together to improve the quality and consistency of our end product while improving the profitability of the cattle industry has a hollow ring to it. You spent nearly 1/3 of your topics geared to bashing the AI studs. They have done a tremendous job of finding bulls with both exceptional genetic merit and true marketability. The testing and proving of bulls is up to individual breeders and breed associations. It is a costly and risky process that we shouldn't ask our AI organizations to bear. The undeniable truth is that the majority of the studs already invest heavily in finding the next generation of bulls.

Our Provocative Tones

I realize my tone, is nearly as hostile and inflammatory as your own, but I don't feel the AI studs are to blame. Economics work in the long run. If good genetics are continually passed over then, someone will come along, find, and promote those bulls, or breeders will take the responsibility of doing it themselves. I would hate to see where the beef industry would be today, without the AI studs and I salute them for the contribution they have made to our industry. [Your tone is refreshing; I too salute the studs; will explain my point later.]

Stud service competition

Publications need on-going Treatment of Core Issues

A bottom-line seed-stock producers perspective on Angus marbling

One area that I think needs to be addressed, especially by the Angus breed is; can we afford to begin the process of singular trait selecting for marbling? I think there are two key issues here. #1: Is it the best thing for our breeds market position? The breed has done a truly outstanding job of promoting the value of marbling. As a result, the demand for Angus bulls has been phenomenal. To hit the targets for marbling among the widely accepted beef breeds in the US, the cattle need to be at least 1/2 to 3/4 Angus. If we continue to add marbling then we move those requirements lower. A producer then only needs 1/4 to 1/2 Angus in their commercial herd. What has that accomplished? Nothing more than opening the door for those breeds that offer superior growth and red meat yield. At times, I think we are a lot like IBM or GM in the past where they took there vaunted market position for granted and misjudged both the direction of their industries and their relative strengths and core competencies.

Angus Bull market share equates to commercial cow herd trait needs

In my opinion, the Angus breed would be better served by seeing little genetic trend for marbling, but greatly improving its REA and lowering its fat problem, while continuing to increase our birth to growth spreads and improving feed efficiency and dressing percentage. Of course, we would have to maintain our calving ease, maternal and marbling advantages. Marbling is a very, very small percentage of the profitability equation when you look at the entire production process from conception to consumption. If we are not careful, we could end up being the Holstein breed of the beef industry, but the beef industry will be 1/4 of the size it is today. By focusing on marbling, we are attempting to take a bigger piece from a shrinking pie.

The Beef Breeders' Second e-mail Comments:

To me: I sure appreciated getting your E-mail this morning. Once again, I want to thank you for creating this type of forum. Many of the subjects addressed are definitely worthy of discussion. I do apologize for sounding a touch on the radical side in my comments; but then again I enjoy getting radical from time to time. I look forward to your reply. You can use any of my comments, but presently I am more comfortable with remaining nameless. Keep up the good work.

Higher Quality End Product - is Key to Industries Destiny

I think there is little doubt that the beef industry must produce a higher quality more consistent product that is more consumer oriented and produced more efficiently. However, I think there remains some very real and legitimate debate about what the consumer actually wants and just as importantly what we should do to meet their expectations.

Marbling Versus dressing percentage bottom-line antagonisms

In our own operation, we have fed cattle for several years; the thing that disturbs me is the "marbling" talk that pervades the industry does not equate to the economics of the market place. Even selling on these value-added grids quality grade does not over-ride dressing percentage when you are looking at it from a dollar and cents approach. We can create 80% choice and 80% yield grade 1 and 2 cattle, if we manage them properly, but we get killed on dressing percentage if we do. When we feed to get adequate dressing percentage we create way too many YG 3's and 4's and our feed efficiency gets pummeled those last 3 to 4 weeks. We must increase our red meat yield and muscle to bone ratio to bring these things in line.

Meeting the bottom-line trait requirements

Our goal is to create 80 x 80 and 5 x 5 cattle (80% choice, 80% yield grades 1 and 2, 5 pounds of gain/day
and 5:1 feed conversion). If I am to be honest with myself we can not do this consistently with straight Angus genetics as they stand today, and with the emphasis we are putting on carcass traits (i.e. marbling almost exclusively) we are not moving closer to my goals. As I take an unbiased approach to the industry I am looking for Angus to provide impeccable calving ease, fertility, mothering ability, optimum levels of milk production, above average growth and marbling to the equation. I am forced to look elsewhere for additional growth, leanness and red-meat yield. We must aggressively pursue these areas if we are going to overcome the advantages of hybrid vigor and the fact that heterosis is greatest for the lower heritable traits that characterize the entire reproductive process. [Some Angus genetics can meet (nearly) all these trait requisites.]

The Consistency Dilemma

Consistency is another tough issue to address. With the myriad of environments and production practices out there, consistency will only be achieved through the use of a wide variety of biological types. The pork and poultry industries have achieved incredible consistency through the use of literally hundreds and hundreds of specialized lines. They have moved beyond breeds and have focused on relative genetic merit for a wide variety of traits. Even though I think consistency is a key to our survival, I am not convinced that it is achieved through the narrowing of our genetic base.

Lack of Genetic Progress Excuses

This consistency argument is even being used to justify a lack of genetic progress and that cattle are already at optimums. I am convinced, that if we as an industry continue to have an 85% calf crop that weighs 500-550 pounds at weaning and produces steers that are market ready at 18 months of age and gain 3.5 pounds/day with a 6.5 feed conversion and are 60% choice and 50% YG 1 and 2s, the pork and poultry boys will continue to eat our lunch.

Balance the Extreme Systems Approach

We must continue to dramatically improve our cattle in all areas and find cattle that BALANCE THE EXTREME to remain competitive. We must embrace a systems approach that does not emphasize anyone segment over another. The animal that maximizes the amount of money returning to the system will probably not be the animal that maximizes profits at weaning, or in the feedlot, or in the packing house, or in the retail store, or in the HRI trade. He will be one that combines above average traits in all of these areas.

Single Trait Devotion Marketing

In order to do this we must remove our single minded devotion to specific trait areas and markets and we must embrace new technologies that enable us to look at the beef production system as a whole and not as single units. I think it also important to remember that even though it is fashionable to blame beef's 20+% loss on market share in inconsistency and excess fat and insufficient marbling the overwhelming reason is that we have been unable or unwilling to keep up with our other protein competitors on a price basis. Efficiency of production should remain
our paramount concern.

Science and the breed-cross mix - Factor

Hybrid vigor is the only thing we get for free in the cattle business, instead of advocating straight breeding why don't we concentrate on making every cow in America 1/2 to 3/4 Angus. That would continue to fuel our incredible growth for another 40 years. Then we might have made the genetic improvements necessary to be able to argue from a scientifically justifiable position that straight breeding is the answer for the cattle business.

Which Direction - what Priorities

The upper end beef market is showing tremendous growth (the success of CAB and the export market are vivid examples), when people look for a special eating experience they are going to turn to beef and will pay more for the product. However, on a day to day basis they want superior value (value = costs/benefits) which is created by many things such as convenience, ease of preparation, packaging, cost, leanness, health concerns, taste, etc. I dream of the day when the only cows in America are black Angus, but I'm concerned that we are rapidly approaching that time and instead of having over 100+ million head in our inventory we will have 35 million and the only time the American consumer will consume beef is on special occasions or at the local fast food joint.
Have a good day.

BEEF PRODUCER's VIEWS Concerning Beef Cattle Production