Beef producers know how to sort fat from thin cattle, but determining the most efficient is more difficult.
The relationship between net feed efficiency, average daily gain, body size and composition was studied in a project funded in part by the Canada Alberta Beef Industry Development Fund.
Researchers found there is no relationship between body size, appearance and net feed efficiency.
Feed efficiency is the difference between an animal’s actual feed intake and its expected feed intake based on its body size and growth.
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Researcher John Basarab of Alberta Agriculture told a recent national beef seminar that measuring feed efficiency is like calculating a golf score.
A negative score in rations consumed per day means the animal ate less than expected to achieve a predicted gain. It is more efficient. A positive score means that the animal ate more than predicted to gain weight so it is less efficient.
For example, if some cattle in a herd consume 125 percent more feed than the average animal in the herd, yet gain the same amount of weight, they are considered inefficient.
Net feed efficiency is a moderately heritable trait indicating that genetic progress can be made in selecting for it, but it is not the only quality producers should seek.
Research showed the more efficient animals look no different than the less efficient. Further, it does not appear to affect carcass composition although the efficient animals tended to have less seam fat and body cavity fat, said Basarab.
Finding the more efficient animals could save Alberta feedlots $50-$100 million a year because feed intake would drop 10-12 percent.
Further study is needed to verify the effect on commercial herds so animals can be selected for this quality in the future.
The cost of feed is second only to fixed costs in determining the profitability of commercial beef operations.
Alberta Agriculture calculates up to 75 percent of the energy taken in by beef animals through feed is used for body maintenance. It is also known that a five percent improvement in feed efficiency could have an economic impact four times greater than a five percent improvement in average daily gain.
Over the last three years, Olds College has tested about 260 bulls to measure efficiency. The feed bunks are mounted on a computer that records each bull’s trips to the trough and how much it eats.
Cattleland Feedyards at Strathmore, Alta., is starting the first Canadian commercial test for net feed efficiency this winter using the same computerized system.
