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ANTONIO, TEXAS (Jan. 27, 2010) — Cow size has become a hot topic
of debate among cow-calf producers. One side argues that smaller
cows are more efficient, and rising feed costs have only fueled
that argument. The other side counters that bigger cows produce
the bigger calves that many if not most cattle feeders favor.
And the beef packing industry generally rewards the feeder for
heavy carcasses from large-framed cattle.
Cow size and efficiency were
addressed during a 2010 Cattle Industry Convention Cattlemen’s
College® session presented by Texas A&M University King Ranch
Institute for Ranch Management (KRIRM) students Jennifer Johnson
and J.D. Radokovich, along with KRIM Director Barry Dunn. The
trio confessed to having no easy answer, no simple
rule-of-thumb, and said the best way to frame the efficiency
question is to ask which cattle are most efficient for a
specific environment and production system.
“It’s complicated,” Radokovich
said. “We can’t tell you exactly what kind of cattle to run. The
best we can do is give you some tools to use in making good
decisions for your individual operations.”
Johnson explained how overall efficiency is a combination of
biological efficiency (feed consumed to beef produced) and
economic efficiency (dollars spent to dollars returned).
Attempting to achieve both simultaneously requires understanding
and managing the genetic potential of cattle, the environment in
which the cattle must perform, and decisions about what product
a producer is marketing and when that product is marketed.
It’s a mistake to equate low cow
maintenance requirements with efficiency, she said, noting that
low-maintenance cows aren’t always efficient. They can be, but
they aren’t necessarily always efficient. Nor are
high-maintenance cows always inefficient. Johnson also warned
against using the old rule-of-thumb calling for a cow to wean a
calf weighing 50% of her own body weight.
“Though commonly used, it’s not an accurate measure of
efficiency. It doesn’t consider calf age and the cow’s milk
production. The ratio of total pounds of calves weaned to the
total number of cows exposed to breeding is a better
evaluation,” Johnson suggested.
The KRIRM team said matching
growth and milk production to available feed resources is key to
creating efficient cows. The natural availability of feed
resources varies greatly across the U.S., and utilizing cattle
with different genetic potential for production is a logical
response to environmental differences. Cow size must fit the
environment and economic guardrails (she rebreeds on time and
produces a calf with market acceptability), to be the “right
size.”
“The most efficient cow is one with the highest milk production
potential that can, without reducing the percent of calves
weaned, repeatedly produce a calf sired by bulls with the growth
and carcass characteristics valued most in the marketplace,”
Dunn stated.
“It’s management that makes resources productive. We don’t need
better cow sizes for our managers. We need better managers for
our cow sizes.”
Pfizer Animal Health sponsored
the Cattlemen’s College, now in its 17th year.
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