It’s Female Season!

By Bill Pendergrass, Beefmaster Breeders United Executive Vice President

I am eye ball deep into my third spring with BBU and you would think that I would remember how hectic and jam packed each spring becomes in Beefmaster nation. Each fall I get revved up for “bull season” and I must say I get equally revved up for “female season” during this time of the year.

Almost every weekend, for the next few months, there will be an outstanding set of Beefmaster females selling at public auction and in a wide variety of regions. While the cattle will differ from region to region, you can count on finding quality females at every event.

Beefmaster nation is on a roll. The resurgence of demand for Beefmaster bulls is a major momentum driver, but when you think about it, why are Beefmaster bulls in much greater demand? Because the industry recognizes the merit of Beefmaster females. Where does a registered Beefmaster bull come from? Obviously they come from a registered Beefmaster cow. Without good doing, hard- working, fertile Beefmaster cows, there would be no demand for our bulls. Every day is Mother’s Day in the Beefmaster nation. As Beefmaster breeders, it is our job to create the most valuable maternal genetics in the beef industry.

Building superior females is very, very hard; whereas concentrating on terminal or carcass traits is actually very simple. That is why good bulls from maternal breeds are typically worth more than bulls from terminal breeds. Simply put Beefmaster sired females will stay in the commercial herd for a lifetime (hopefully), whereas continental breed sired females will probably go to the feedyard and on to the packing plant.

Our beef industry has been dominated by carcass oriented genetics for the past ten years and I understand why that has happened. In times of tight margins, the premiums earned for high marbling genetics and the trickle down premiums that finally show up for “black hided” calves at the sale barn are very attractive. As an industry, we have been diving head first into carcass premium, earning genetics for some time and it has worked. Over 70% of the USDA federally graded and inspected carcasses in the United States are quality grade Choice or higher. This is an amazing statistic and is proof that single trait selection for marbling works. This is great for the packer and the consumer, but what are we doing to America’s cow herd with these terminal genetics?

The same “black hided” steer genetics that earn big premiums for the packer and feeder are facing serious challenges in the cow pasture. Sisters to the steers who earn big premiums in the plant are struggling to be productive females. Fertility, longevity, mature cow size and too much milk. Yes, you hear me correctly, TOO MUCH MILK are common issues for a lot of modern genetics from a certain dominant breed. For these reasons, the beef industry is finally beginning to talk about COW EFFICIENCY.

The future of the Beefmaster breed lies in carving out a niche as THE maternal efficiency breed. What is cow efficiency? That debate is being waged as we speak by animal scientists, geneticists and ranchers and breed associations. Everyone is trying to put their own spin on efficiency, but at the end of the day whoever makes the best case and actually proves their product is efficient will get to sell bulls who will breed several black hided cows. Needless to say this could be a lucrative prospect, there are millions of black hided cows to be bred.

Beefmasters have a great and unique opportunity to earn the “cow efficiency” argument. However, I promise you it will take hard scientific data to win the argument. Simply saying that you are efficient, will not suffice. The breed(s) who come forth with meaningful data will ultimately be successful. What exactly is the information that we need to collect? We must collect fertility data, growth data, mature cow size data and some very technical feed intake and conversion data that can only come from Growsafe Systems. Once enough of this technical data is collected, geneticists will apply DNA technology to identify the gene markers associated with these traits and then this information will be added to genetic evaluations. Then buyers can use that information to select more “efficient” genetics.

Beefmasters have an unfair advantage in this process because we really are efficient, but our biggest challenge is to prove this by collecting meaningful data. Yes, this data will be expressed in the form of EPDs, but EPDs are the language of the modern beef industry. Our competition has used performance and carcass data first as a marketing tool and now as a weapon to promote their product. This cow efficiency movement is ideally suited for Beefmasters and we should take a page from our competition; collect the emerging data points, prove our efficiency, create the most useful efficiency measurements in the industry and mass produce these efficient genetics. If we do this correctly, Beefmaster efficiency measures will have the same effect that “black hided” premiums have had for the Angus breed.

This past fall the Breed Improvement Committee began this discussion. This spring the Breed Improvement and Long Range Planning Committees will renew this important task. BBU’s Consulting Geneticist Dr. Matt Spangler has given us great advice on how to proceed. He is on record urging breed associations to create maternal indices that contain: Heifer Pregnancy (EPD), Days to Calving (EPD), Feed Intake (EPD), Residual Feed Intake (EPD) – Feed Intake and RFI would be indexed together to balance each other out, Mature Cow Size (EPD) and Stayability (EPD).

Dr. Spangler’s advice is noteworthy. He oversaw and influenced the research that produced BBU’s Maternal Index ($M). From my perspective, $M is the best Maternal Index of any breed out there, but it was built to be improved upon. By creating the EPDs he suggests and adding them to $M Beefmasters will take the lead in identifying and producing the most “efficient” genetics in the beef industry.

In the next few years you will be hearing a lot about efficiency, especially feed efficiency. While difficult and expensive to collect, this data will become central to the marketing efforts of all breeds. Beefmasters look really good on Growsafe based systems, especially for Residual Feed Intake (RFI). As the industry wide efficiency battle heats up, you will be hearing more about how well Beefmasters look on RFI. Consider this a sneak peek of the future of the efficiency debate. BBU is preparing a system to help breeders identify efficiency genetics. At the moment, no one knows where the truly efficient Beefmaster genetics are. This is a wide open field.

You have heard me say many times that we live in exciting times. Technology is reshaping the beef industry as we know it. DNA, Growsafe Systems, progeny testing and other tools are now common place. However, at the end of the day it takes a functional, fertile and good looking cow to keep a rancher in business. Beefmasters already have that and more. Our future lies in documenting the fertility and efficiency traits that are inherent in this great breed. If we approach this efficiency battle correctly, Beefmasters will emerge as the maternal efficiency specialist and the value of Beefmaster genetics will be documented. Remember, every day is Mother’s Day in the Beefmaster nation.