BROOKS, Alta. – Giving feedlots the kind of cattle they want starts with calf producers, but they may feel the demands are heavy and profits paltry.
Each sector of the beef industry wants to make a profit, says nutritionist Dwight Karren of Lethbridge, but often they don’t understand what is required to get there.
“All segments of the industry have to be profitable,” said Karren, who works with about 50 feedlots in southern Alberta.
“It is when we get into the application of profitability and who is going to have most of the profits is where we get our disagreements.”
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More cattle were sold on rail during the BSE crisis, but since trade started to normalize, more feedlots have entered grid system agreements where premiums are awarded for meeting carcass requirements. Discounts are applied to producers who do not offer high lean meat yields and high marbling scores at the right carcass weight.
Feedlots operate on tight margins and expenses must be carefully balanced. Cattle have to be bought and sold at the right time to earn a profit. Pennies per pound can make a large difference on their bottom line.
“He only has to save 1.5 percent on the cattle he buys to make $10 per head,” Karren said.
Feedlot expenses in descending order are the price of calves, feed, yardage, interest and health costs. However, costs are changing because of the escalation in feed prices, which is becoming a higher percentage of overall costs.
Bids are lower for calves when grain prices go up, which is passed on to the cow-calf operator.
Many of the adjustments made at the cow-calf level have come in response to what feedlots want.
For example, feedlots wanted cattle that grow quickly so cow-calf producers adjusted their breeding programs to wean bigger calves.
However, some of these changes can cause trouble for producers.
Selecting for growth means higher birth weights and the potential for more calving trouble and fewer live calves at weaning.
“If you select for higher weaning weights you will increase birth weights,” he said.
Heavier calves also means bigger cows that require more feed. However, the feed requirement is not proportional to the increased size.
A 1,400 pound cow is 27 percent bigger than an 1,100 pound cow, but the bigger female only needs 16 percent more feed than the smaller one for maintenance.
Part of the changes are achieved using crossbreds that may provide a better package of beef animals.
A strong female line offers the desirable maternal characteristics, such as more milk. That improvement may involve bringing in new bulls and female replacements. The sire line brings in better growth and carcass quality.
A crossbred cow has hybrid vigour, which is a genetic improvement over what would be expected with a straight bred animal.
Reproductive performance is highly heritable and improves with crossbred cows. The resulting calves produce 25 percent more weaned weight.
An improvement should also be evident in a better calving rate with more live calves born, higher birth and weaned weight, improved survival to weaning and longevity among cows.
Beef producers have known about the benefits of crossbreeding for a long time. New genetic tests offered by private companies are improving to the point where qualities such as marbling can also be detected so the appropriate bulls can be selected for that quality. The ability to lay on more fat within muscle is a quality found across most breeds.
