One of the keys to profitability of any cow-calf operation is having cattle whose production potential matches the environment they will be asked to perform in. This is a lesson that was learned the hard way in the late 19th century, and one we are still wrangling with 140 years later.
To explore the first and biggest industry disaster caused by cattle production potential not fitting their environment, one must go back to the end of the Civil War when the Western range was first stocked with cattle. As Native Americans were placed on reservations and the bison herd depopulated, the vast grasslands of the West were ripe to be exploited through cattle.
This led to a period of wild speculation, with cattle companies that were backed by European and Eastern U.S. investors quickly filling every nook and cranny of Western grasslands with cattle.
The Longhorns that had been running feral in Texas were the base stock that populated the Western range. However, unlike the common mythology of the West, it was Shorthorns that were first used to upgrade the Longhorn cattle for the initial 15 years after the Civil War. This was explained in Alvin Sanders’ 1914 book, The Story of the Herefords: “The Hereford had no place in the original invasion of the range country.”
Sanders further explained, “It was the blood of Shorthorn bulls that laid the foundation for the present improved class of cattle coming from the Western ranges. Large numbers of them had been used throughout the Western country before the Herefords were bred in the Western states, so that when the ‘white-faced’ bulls began going upon the ranges, the cow herds were in many instances well graded up with Shorthorn blood.”
The problem was the type of Shorthorn popular at the time among Midwestern seedstock producers, who were supplying the West with range bulls, were the large, dual-purpose strain of the breed. This, as opposed to the straight beef-type Shorthorns that were popular at the time in Scotland and Canada. This meant that the Western cow herd was quickly being graded up with Shorthorns whose genetics produced large mature size, high milk potential and high growth potential animals. However, the environment they were expected to perform in was typically an overstocked range without provisions for supplementing the cattle during the winter with stored feed.
This all came crashing down in the winter of 1880-81, and the even more disastrous winter of 1886-87, which occurred after a drought the summer before. The latter winter became known as “the big die up,” and typical individual losses were estimated at one-half to two-thirds of an entire herd. At this time, Herefords were coming into use, and at the end of the calamity of the big die up, the Shorthorns tended to die and the Herefords tended to live.
These smaller mature size, lower milk Herefords had less performance, but they met the basic criteria of survival within their environment. From that point forward, Herefords would own the early Western range.
Now fast forward to today, and our range management has vastly improved as has basic cattle management like proper winter feed supplement. That has allowed the industry to carry cattle on the range with high production genetics. However, we are again testing the limits with these genetics for production in terms of what the environment will support.
This was brought out in the University of Nebraska’s Dr. Travis Mulliniks’ presentation at the recent Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) research symposium on matching a cow herd to its environment; particularly pertaining to milk. His main thesis was that producers have become fixated with measuring outputs such as weaning weight, and not conscious enough on cost of production.
For instance, he used the example that feed-cost-per-animal unit accounts for 50 percent of the variation that influences profitability. It was also found that another 17 percent was explained by depreciation, while only 5 percent of the variation that influenced profitability was explained by calf body weight. Additionally, the most economically important trait is reproduction. Ultimately, having more milk than the production environment will support negatively impacts maintenance costs, depreciation, and reproduction.
The reason maintenance costs increase is because cattle with genetics for more milk potential also have more of their weight represented in high maintenance organ and gut mass. In addition, cows that leave the herd before they are fully depreciated become a financial liability for an operation.
This occurs because cows that have suboptimum reproduction results in a higher turnover rate and more cows leaving the herd before fully depreciated. Another more subtle problem with production potential outstripping the environment is that it results in cows having more days postpartum before they resume estrous cycles.
The consequence of this is later-bred cattle, which will result in younger and lighter calves when they are marketed in the fall. Therefore, having cows with more milk potential than the environment will support may actually result in lower payweights. The bottom line is calf weights at weaning have been flat within the industry for over a decade, which indicates that the environment on many commercial cow-calf operations has become the limiting factor.
The American beef industry has gone through phases where cattle were selected whose size and production potential outstrips what the environment they will be expected to perform in will support. In the 1880s, this resulted in “the big die up,” while today it comes in the form of cattle with higher maintenance costs and suboptimal reproduction.
The data presented at BIF showed that even though selection has continued to occur for more production output in the form of milk and growth, producers are not realizing this increased production potential with weaning weights remaining flat. Therefore, it is imperative that the genetic potential for cattle production traits be custom fit to a producer’s environment. — Dr. Bob Hough
(Dr. Bob Hough is the retired executive vice president of the Red Angus Association of America and freelance writer.)
