Cutting-edge cattle
By James D. Ritchie

When it comes to producing the kind of beef consumers demand, Mike John, director of MFA Health Track Beef Alliance, says there's no time like right now. New developments in MFA's alliance will keep producers in the forefront of cattle production and marketing.

For the first time in two decades, per capita consumption of beef is up. This stronger demand comes during a period of relatively high beef prices--putting to rest the notion that price alone is a major consideration of beef buyers.

During June and July, U.S. companies processed a record volume of beef. Still, choice steer prices held in the upper $60s range, and feeder cattle prices approached $90 per hundredweight. Meanwhile, consumers ate more beef.

"Consumers drive the beef economy, and we're finally beginning to pay attention to what consumers want," said Mike John, director of the MFA Health Track Beef Alliance. "We are supplying more of the kinds of beef consumers demand, but we've still got a long way to go.

"We have had some huge successes, but we still need to make improvements in the cattle we send to market and in the way we produce them," John added. "These improvements represent major changes in most operations, and we are getting strong signals from consumers and retailers. We are responsible for the kind of beef the consumers get, and that responsibility begins when we make decisions on which bull to breed to which cow."

John, former president of the Missouri Cattlemen's Association, practices what he preaches with his own cow-calf operation in Randolph County, Mo.

"We're not in the cattle business; we're in the food business," he said. "Many of the things we need to do are things all of us should have been doing all along: using better genetics, tightening calving seasons, taking better care of health and nutrition.

"In the past, there hasn't always been a lot of financial incentive to do some of these things, but that is changing fast," John added. "We should make those needed changes now while the market is good and we have fewer risks. We have some unbelievable opportunities right now. When the cattle cycle turns--and it will--we are going to see sharp discounts for commodity-grade cattle that do not fit a marketing grid."

Producers got a taste of this earlier in the year when the choice-to-select price spread widened to nearly $21 per hundredweight. So-called "outlier" cattle (yield grade 4s, carcasses that are too small or too large) usually take similar hits in the market.

"Our idea with the MFA Health Track Beef Alliance [formerly the MFA Alliance Advantage] is a lot of small- and medium-size producers working together," said John. "But we have to agree to work together to produce the kind of beef consumers demand. When we do, the potential rewards are phenomenal.

"If you do the things the Alliance requires, you will make more money compared with not doing them," he continued. "And when we put together the numbers in more merchantable lots of cattle, you'll make more money--because your calves will earn a premium."

The basic management steps to qualify calves to sell through the alliance are:

• Cattle should be weaned at least 45 days ahead of sale date.
• Cattle should be vaccinated for the most common viral and bacterial diseases. John prefers that calves first be vaccinated two weeks or so before weaning, with follow-up boosters after weaning with these products: 7-way blackleg, haemophilus somnus, IBR-BVD-PI3-BRSV (killed vaccine when calves are vaccinated before weaning) and pasteurella hermolytica.
• Male calves are to be castrated and healed; heifers guaranteed to be open.
• Horns should be removed or tipped.
• Calves should be fed a plane of nutrition that allows them to make post-weaning weight gains.

"Our main goal is to improve the health of Missouri cattle," said John. "We have shown that alliance calves can have a treatment rate of less than 5 percent and a death loss of one-half of 1 percent in the feedlot."

By comparison, the industry average is 25 to 30 percent treatment rate and a 2 to 5 percent death loss.

"When calves are treated to Alliance standards, they earn more--for the producer and for everyone downstream in the process," said John. "They are worth more, and they bring more."

This fall, alliance cattle will be fitted with electronic identification (EID) tags. Working with Dr. John Hunt, Missouri state veterinarian, all MFA Health Track Beef Alliance red-tagged calves will be identified electronically, and their information will be stored in a central database.

Although not all feed yards have equipment to read EID tags (and not all packers can scan EID tags at line speed), this technology is coming on fast.

"We want to be on the cutting edge of new developments rather than play catch-up," said John. "We will provide producers with all data collected from EIDs on their calves to help producers better manage their operations.

"Another benefit of EID is we can more readily identify cattle to their farm or ranch of origin," he added. "This is going to happen; some big beef retailers are calling for it now, and Canada is going to mandatory source verification in January 2001.

"We will tag calves this fall with EID tags, and we will index Alliance cow herds free of charge," John said. "We believe this is necessary to make the progress we need to make. In the future, we'll probably have to charge for these services, but this fall we are doing it at no cost to the producer."

You can learn more about the MFA Health Track Beef Alliance at your local MFA Agri Services Center or by calling 888-514-BEEF (2333).