Invest in the Beef Industry, Invest in Beefmasters

South Texas landowners and ranchers look forward to each October, not for Halloween and not for the cooler weather, they look forward to the hospitality offered by Bill and Dusty Carr at their Hilltop Ranch located outside of Floresville, Texas. Each October the Beefmaster breed is busy with convention chaos, but the annual Bill Carr and Others Fall Beefmaster Sale provides a day to view excellent cattle and learn what the future holds for the beef cattle industry. Cattle breeders, ranchers and farmers from throughout the South Texas, Mexico and up into eastern Colorado attended a new aspect to the Bill Carr and Others Fall Sale on Oct. 25, 2013, which included an afternoon of cattle camaraderie and educational seminars.

The educational seminars included Dr. Joe Paschal, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Livestock Specialist out of Corpus Christi, Texas talking about why we should invest in beef breeding cattle. His program focused on the aspect that the demand for beef continues to climb despite the low cowherd numbers. He reviewed the state of the United States cowherd and shared that the U.S. beef cowherd is not expected to rebuild until at least January 1, 2015. He also shared will the cowherd is not growing, the value of beef is moving higher at all levels. Dr. Paschal guided seminar attendees through various beef production scenarios that focused on best ways to manage a commercial herd, as well as a purebred herd. Paschal emphasized that investing in cattle now is a good move because cattle values will rise for the next several years as demand for beef and live animals increase.

Following Joe Paschal, Dale Lasater from Matheson, Colo., discussed the history of the Beefmaster breed and the vision his father, Tom Lasater, envisioned for the Beefmaster breed and its impact on the cattle industry. Lasater focused on the fact the breed was developed on what has become known as the Six Essentials – Weight, Conformation, Milk Production, Fertility, Hardiness and Disposition. These essentials became the economic strength of Beefmasters and have made them favorites with those who depend on cattle for a living. Beefmasters are the only beef breed specifically developed to excel in these important economic traits. After learning about the history of Beefmasters, BBU Chief Operations Officer Collin Osbourn discussed current programs offered through Beefmaster Breeders United such as upgrading, whole herd reporting, inventory based reporting and advancer programs.

The information packed afternoon was wrapped up with a discussion led by commercial cattlemen Melvin Scherer, Trey Scherer and Lane Robertson, who brought several Beefmaster cross calves for display. They discussed how their Beefmaster cross cattle were performing at feedlots and value they are seeing in the heavy weaning weights related to Beefmaster bull performance on commercial females.

This seminar provided a well rounded evaluation of the beef cattle industry, while focusing on how Beefmaster cattle can help a commercial cattleman succeed in today’s market. Not only do Beefmaster cattle produce extremely fertile, functional and docile females to rebuild America’s cowherds, they also produce profitable and efficient feeders calves that deliver results in the current market place.