MFA's Beef Innovator seminars brought industry experts to beef producers. The result is a new perspective on a traditional industry.

For producers of good cattle, these are happy days in the beef industry-for all segments of the industry. And even those good cattle can be turned into more valuable products with the right management and market timing.

That was the theme of the 2004 MFA Beef Innovators seminars, held at Columbia and Springfield, Mo. Kevin Good, market analyst for Cattle-Fax, presented a rosy outlook for the cattle industry for the near-term future. Mike John, manager of the MFA Health Track Beef Alliance, detailed value-added techniques, backed up by records on nearly 100,000 head of cattle marketed through Health Track. Jim White, MFA ruminant nutritionist, outlined programs to get animals from calf to carcass quicker and more efficiently. And Jon Schmidt, staff veterinarian with Trans Ova Genetics, gave seminar goers a peek at the future of bovine genetic technology.

Carcass weights rising

"We're still in a tight beef market," said Good. "Steer and heifer slaughter are running 7 percent below a year ago, part of that due to the million head or so that aren't coming in from Canada since the BSE case.

"There are signs that the nation's beef herd is growing," Good added. "Heifer slaughter is running about 30 percent of the total, compared with 35 percent in previous years. And we're killing fewer cows, partly due to a lower dairy cow slaughter. But cow numbers are down in western states, due to the persistent drought. We may be expanding the U.S. herd somewhat, but I don't think any expansion will be that rapid. The supply of feeder cattle and calves is tight and will be tight for quite a while."

While numbers are down, average carcass weights are continuing an upward trend, he continued. "Beef production per cow is up 40 to 45 percent, compared with just a few years ago. Also, beef imports are up in the face of smaller exports. On balance, national beef supplies will be somewhat larger. U.S. consumers will need to eat a little more beef in the coming year.

"But there's good news from a demand standpoint," Good said. "Less desirable beef cuts-chucks and rounds-have increased in price dramatically, as new consumer products are developed from these cuts. The consumer emphasis on low-carbohydrate diets (such as the Atkins Diet) also helps demand significantly."

As a result, Good expects Choice steer prices to stay at or above the $80-per-hundredweight level. That translates to an average price of about $1.15 per pound for 750-pound steers, at least for the rest of 2004.

"There are tremendous opportunities in the current beef market," he told seminar goers. "For example, returns to calf producers show $151 per cow difference between low-return producers and high-return producers. Pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed is a big factor in these differences.

"Also, cow-calf men may want to take a harder look at the timing of cull-cow marketing," he urged. "Cow slaughter prices are very seasonal, typically lowest in the fall and highest in early spring. That's a marketing opportunity for spring-calving cowmen who typically sell open cows when calves are weaned in the fall. There are dollars to be made by keeping those cows and feeding them awhile. Not only will dry cows gain a lot of weight in a short time, but feeding them awhile can improve their quality grade. Timing cow sales could add to the bottom line of many calf producers."

Rethink traditional marketing?

Bawling, fresh-weaned calves incur terrific shrink- 8 to 12 percent-at their first market stop, noted Mike John. "Shrink can kill profits. Proper preconditioning can reduce that shrink by 50 pounds per head or more. With the regimen followed by MFA Health Track producers, we're getting shrink close to zero."

Health Track cattle are immunized with two rounds of vaccinations, electronically identified to the farm of origin, pre-weaned and fed for at least 45 days before marketing.

"Feeding calves post-weaning for 45 days or more not only gets them accustomed to eating from a feed bunk, it lets them more than gain back the weight they lost to weaning stress," said John. "The incremental value of that gain is worth more than the cost to put on the gain. In fact, the incremental value of gain is highest when calf prices are relatively high.

"Buyers have demonstrated more demand for source-verified, properly preconditioned cattle by bidding higher prices for them," he added. "MFA Health Track calves earn from $5 to $15 per hundredweight premium, compared with non-Health Track cattle sold at the same market on the same day. We can back that up with complete marketing data on more than 15,000 Health Track calves against 40,000 non-Health Track calves sold at the same location the same week."

And, echoing Kevin Good's admonition about timely marketing of cull cows, John recommends moving calf marketing out of the traditional low-price period of October and November.

"None of us can outguess the market, but October to November is historically the season when the biggest supplies of non-weaned calves hit the market," he said. "By moving the marketing date past that historic glut in supply and adding pre-conditioning value, a calf producer can put $90 to $150 per head more in his pocket. In fact, the seasonality of supply and demand is so dependable that some cowmen might want to look at calving timing."

A game plan for calves

How those calves are managed after they leave their farm of origin determines how soon they move onto the packer's rail as carcasses, said Jim White. Depending on the production system, animals may wind up in the beef box as soon as a year or as old as 24 months. White outlined the differences among "calf feds," short yearlings and long yearlings.

"Not all cattle fit all systems," he said. "You need to start with the endpoint in mind: an expected carcass weighing between 550 and 950 pounds.

"Calf feds typically work best with large-framed, growthy cattle, exotic breeds and crosses," White added. "These calves wean at 550 pounds or heavier and go directly on feed. They will be fed finishing rations for upwards of 200 days. Short yearlings are backgrounded, grown at a fairly good rate of gain for 90 to 120 days, then finished to slaughter weights. Long yearlings go on a more deferred program, backgrounded for 30 to 60 days, grown at a moderate rate of gain for 14 to 18 months, and finally finished on higher-energy rations.

"There are trade-offs among the systems," White continued. "For example, yearlings generally require less medical attention and fewer days on a finishing diet. Also, cattle of this size tend to be more available year 'round. On the other hand, calves are more efficient at converting feed to gain. They will finish on less total energy fed and typically are marketed at younger ages."

Also, having animals on hand a shorter time reduces ownership costs: interest on investment, insurance, etc. White compared calf feds versus yearlings in the table below.

"Results are mixed, but tend to favor younger animals if they are fed out on a high-concentrate diet," he said. "The feedlot dry-matter intake increased with age and weight at feedlot entry, with no difference among different groups in terms of feed conversion efficiency. However, slower gains in a prolonged grazing system may decrease marbling and thus quality grade.

"I would creep feed calves for at least 80 days before weaning," White added. "Creep feeding puts relatively cheap gains on calves and takes some pressure off nursing cows. And, the market does not discriminate against calves carrying some extra flesh the way it once did."

Technology effects

The ingenious techniques of artificial insemination and embryo transplants have multiplied superior genetics far beyond what would have been possible with natural mating and calving, said Jon Schmidt, staff veterinarian, Trans Ova Genetics.

"When we learned how to freeze semen (and, later, embryos), we were able to do much more to reproduce superior bulls and cows," he said. "Increasing the genetic impact of superior females is one of our main goals at Trans Ova Genetics."

The company maintains large herds of embryo recipient cows. Donor cows, owned by producers, are brought to Trans Ova facilities where they are bred by AI, embryos collected and transferred into recip cows.

"We harvest embryos at 7 days and either implant them right away or freeze them for later use," said Schmidt. "And we now can split embryos to make two from one, although we cannot yet freeze these divided embryos."

Trans Ova Genetics uses in-vitro fertilization (IVF) techniques to harvest unfertilized eggs, fertilize them with semen and grow the embryo in a petrie dish until it can be implanted in a recipient female.

One of the more exciting things about IVF technology: egg collection from juvenile heifers (heifers that have not reached puberty), which decreases the generation interval greatly. Work is also progressing in the ability to sex semen.

"We can sex semen now with 90 percent accuracy," he said. "But it costs two to four times the cost of regular semen."