Reproduction, Growth, Carcass Traits -- Can We Have It All? Part 2

by Mark Gardiner, Gardiner Angus Ranch, Ashland, Kansas

In the last issue of Feed*Lot, I discussed that I believe that beef cattle production is easier today than any time in history due to the information that is available. I also discussed how my dad, Henry Gardiner, tried to improve our herd by using prize winning bulls, but did not have much success. However, once the frist Angus Field Data Report (Sire Summary) was published, he was able to make sire selection based on genetic merit for selected traits.

Since 1980, we have relied heavily on EPDs to select our sires. Many of the bulls we use we have never seen. However, we select only progeny proven sires that have sired hundreds, if not thousands, of calves. We have a total AI (artifical insemination) program, and use no clean up bulls. By utilizing the EPDs, we have successfully improved the weaning weights of our calves.

Looking at Table 1, you'll see that our steer weights from 1980 through 1999 tell the rest of the story.

We have retained ownership of some of our home-raised steers through slaughter since 1970. We have also been buying feeder cattle and putting them into the feedlot since 1972. There have been about 2000 steers purchased each year and about 60 to 100 home-raised steers fed. Over the past nineteen years the purchased cattle's performance has improved some, but not as dramatically as our home-raised steers.

With the disciplined use of EPDs over a 20-year period we dramatically improved the performance of our home-raised steers. The genetically improved steers were in the feedlot 50 days less than their herd mates two decades earlier, but still went to slaughter 262 pounds heavier than their earlier relatives. The genetic improvement was all done by the selection of sires. The mothers of the 1998-99 steers were out of the descendants of the same cowherd that produced the 1978-80 steers. The management and forage system was the same in 1998-99 as it was in 1978-80.

In the fall of 1994 Dad mentioned to a friend that our bulls had done well in their 95-day feed test with some gaining over 7 pounds per day. The reply was, "Well how do you know that the faster gaining bulls do not eat all the time and are not the most efficient gainers?" We could not answer that question to our own satisfaction until we examined the gain and dry matter conversion of our bulls on test from 1977-1999.

We have seen average pen gains go from 2.7 pounds per day in 1977 to 5.37 pounds per day in 1998. We have also observed that during the same time period feed conversion improved from 7.48 pounds of feed consumed on a dry matter basis for a pound of gain to 4.28 pounds of feed consumed on a dry matter basis per pound of gain.

That's a 57 percent decrease in feed consumed per pound of gain, while we almost doubled their rate of gain. It's pretty obvious that selection for faster gain also produced cattle that were more efficient. In the 1980's we identified as our goals to wean 10-month-old steer calves at 800 pounds and to have our steers gain 4 pounds per day in the feedlot. We accomplished both goals by 1990. Before the year 2005 I predict that we will feed a pen of cattle that will have a feed conversion of a pound of gain from less than 4 pounds of feed on a dry matter basis.

In addition to being efficient, those cattle will be gaining 6 pounds or more per day during their time on feed. That's a long way from weaning 526-pound steers that take 7.48 pounds of feed to produce a pound of gain at the rate of 2.7 pounds per day!

Carcass Traits
Value based marketing is here. I have heard all my life that someday all cattle would be marketed based on the value of their end product. This becomes more true every day. In the past all fed cattle were marketed on an average pricing system. This led to huge premiums for the wrong cattle, because the best way to make money was to upgrade sorry cattle and receive an average price for them. When the Certified Angus Beef (CAB) program was started, this was a good program for consumers and the retailers who were marketing CAB, but there were not strong economic signals to "pull" more CAB cattle through the system. Granted, packers wanted to purchase Angus influenced cattle, but only for the "one price fits all" average price. This did nothing to pay producers more for producing a higher quality beef product.

One of the reasons I became involved in US Premium Beef (USPB), was because I felt commercial producers should receive more for using high quality Angus genetics. Today USPB pays $14.00 per cwt. for each and every Prime carcass, and $4.50 per cwt. for every CAB carcass. USPB also pays $3.00 per cwt. for each Farmland Black Angus (FAB) carcass. An 800-pound Prime carcass is worth $72 dollars more per head, an 800-pound CAB carcass is worth $36 more per head, and an 800-pound FAB carcass is worth an additional $24 per head. USPB is proud to pay some of the highest premiums in the business for high-quality Angus cattle, and I'm even more proud that we have helped the other packers see the light and pay more money for the high quality Angus cattle (trust me they didn't start doing it out of the goodness of their hearts). This is good news for the beef business because these economic incentives help pull the better beef products through to the consumer. The greatest news in the beef world today is that by improving product quality we have stabilized beef demand.

So what does this all mean to Angus breeders? We have Angus cattle. They put up good quality grades on the rail. We have Certified Angus Beef. Everything is great right?......... Wrong!! Barely 20% of all eligible Angus cattle meet the minimum requirements for CAB. The biggest reason CAB still struggles with supply is because carcass traits of Angus cattle have not been good enough. When you look at the selection strategies our breed has applied over the past 26 years you find that the Angus breed has increased the yearling growth by about 30%. However, during the same period you find that we have only improved the marbling by +.11 units and the REA by +.17 in2. In other words, we have made very little genetic change in our breed for carcass traits.

Carcass traits are highly heritable. We should be able to make more change with carcass traits than growth traits. We have not. WHY? The American Angus Association has the largest carcass database in the world, but this carcass database has not been large enough or good enough. That's about to change.

The genetic trend for carcass traits is going to "blast off" because the breed's commitment to ultrasound measurement of carcass traits. The Angus breed is now measuring nearly 100,000 head each year via ultrasound. Is ultrasound data accurate? Yes! It is more accurate than carcass data. Everybody assumes that kill data is perfect, when the reality is that gathering kill data is very subjective, it suffers from the variability among USDA graders to the speed at which this data must be gathered. I support the use of ultrasound and publishing of that data in the American Angus Association ultrasound report. As your Angus colleague I encourage you to embrace this system, and measure your cattle in order to contribute to the database. I predict that we will see more improvement in the Angus breed for carcass traits, in the next 5 years than we have seen in the previous 30. As your competitor, I would say if you don't believe in it, that just gives me more opportunity to breed the best cattle.

If a breeder selects for carcass traits will he sacrifice the reproductive or growth performance of his herd? According to Dr. Twig Marston of Kansas State University there is little or no evidence in the scientific literature that selection for carcass traits will impair reproduction or growth traits of a cowherd. Dr. Marston's review indicated that there is neither a positive nor a negative correlation between marbling and pregnancy rates.
The American Angus Association's database shows a minimal correlation between marbling and percent retail product. So breeders may simultaneously select for both quality and red meat yield. Moreover, since the genetic correlation between fat thickness and marbling is near zero, Angus breeders can select for marbling while not sacrificing the easy fleshing cowherd, according to Dr. Marston.

In the next installment, I will conclude this article by discussing reproduction as a performance trait, and how we select sires using 18 EPD traits.