Maternal heterosis borne by complementary crossbreeding is tough to beat for leveraging production efficiency and economic potential in commercial cow-calf herds.
Consider a 14% advantage in first-calf weaning rate at 2 years of age (see Table 1). That’s the difference between Hereford-sired, black baldy females and commercial Angus females in the American Hereford Association’s (AHA) ongoing cooperative research project with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). It is designed to quantify the differences between breeding either Hereford or Angus bulls to commercial Angus cows over time and retaining replacement heifers.
“In a 100-head cow herd, that’s 14 more calves. If you put a $2,000 price tag on each weaned calf, that’s $28,000. That’s $280 more per cow. That’s a lot of dollars,” said Dan Shike, lead project researcher and interim head of the UIUC department of animal sciences.
Plus, 18% more of the Hereford-sired females bred back on time for their second calf.
The study began with 600 commercial Angus cows. Half were bred to six different Hereford bulls; the other half to Angus bulls. All bulls used represented the top 15% of each breed for its maternal and terminal indexes. This is a fall-calving herd. Results so far underscore the significant advantages enabled by Hereford genetics and maternal heterosis.
“I’m not looking for the cow that wins in one year. I’m looking for the cow that wins over her lifetime and stays in the herd, stays in production, because she has some built-in fertility, some resilience, which leads to longevity,” Shike said. “They wean more calves, and more of them breed back. That’s Hereford genetics; that’s maternal heterosis.”
More efficiency and fewer inputs
“The baldy female, in my opinion, is second to none as a replacement female, from the milking ability we get from the Hereford and the carcass merit to sustainability,” said Paul Koffskey, Groendyke Ranch manager, Nash, OK. “If you’re not using that to your advantage, I think you’re leaving money on the table.”
Koffskey was no stranger to Hereford genetics and heterosis when he came to Groendyke Ranch several years ago. At the time, ranch owner, John Groendyke, said his goal was increased ranch efficiency. Keep in mind the ranch runs about 2,000 commercial cows across four ranches in three counties. The cows are all Angus—75% black and 25% red. These days, Hereford bulls breed about 80% of the cows.
“There’s got to be a cow. In my opinion, with the rising input costs, whether it be feed, fertilizer, labor or whatever, the cow has to be as efficient as she possibly can, whether it be weaning half or more of her body weight, having a calf every year or breeding back to have a calf at the same time every year and maintaining a BCS (body condition score) of 6 or better with no inputs other than during the winter time,” Koffskey said. “That’s what you’re after, and I guess you could probably call that intensive management, but it should be with the input costs we have now days.”
Thinking back to the UIUC study, Shike explains feed efficiency of the Hereford-sired baldies so far accounts for a savings of $90 per head per year in feed costs, compared to their straight black counterparts. That’s with hay priced at $150 per ton.
All of that helps explain the enviable market for the baldy replacement females Groendyke Ranch is quickly building, at least in general terms. More specifically, the customer base is growing because Koffskey matches bulls to individual cow groups of 50-100 head based on whether they’re building replacements or terminal calves. He is also a stickler for using bulls with complete genetic evaluation data.
“I can prove in black and white what those traits mean to us when I’m putting those bulls with different groups of cows. It’s a hugely successful tool to use,” Koffskey said.
Groendyke Ranch was named the AHA Commercial Producer of the Year in October. The audience saw a video during the award presentation, providing an overview of the ranch and its cattle.
“That group of black baldy heifers you saw just weaned their second calves at 215 days actual age. The steer calves weaned at 665 pounds and the heifer calves at 655 lbs.,” Koffskey told the crowd. “The breed-back was 97% on a 45-day breeding season. How much more efficient do you want to be? It’s all because of the Hereford influence.”
From the first year Groendyke Ranch incorporated Hereford bulls to the third year, Koffskey said weaning weights increased 62 lbs. He explains, “Some people may think that’s not a lot, but on 2,000 calves, you do the math, and it’s all because of the Hereford advantage. There’s no question about that.”
Most producers would rather have more pounds to sell than fewer, of course. But the cost of added pounds is also part of the equation.
Greg Thoma, AgNext director for agricultural modeling and lifecycle assessment at Colorado State University, used data from the UIUC study to conduct a lifecycle assessment for a 1,000-head operation over 10 years. The model considered a 1,000-cow commercial Angus herd using Hereford bulls and retaining its own replacement heifers or using Angus bulls and retaining its own replacement heifers.
Although weaning weights were heavier in the Angus-sired scenario, increased fertility, breed-back and longevity meant more weaned calves over time in the Hereford-sired model, which yielded 45,728 more lbs. of steers and open heifers to sell.
For instance, 13% more of the Hereford-sired females in the UIUC study remained in the herd as 4-year-olds, compared to the straight black group (Table 2).
“I’ve seen the difference in other breeds that we have tried to use, whether it’s a terminal cross or not. And by and far, the Hereford breed is, hands down, way above it,” Koffskey said. “Whether you put a Hereford bull on the black cows, red cows, Charolais cows or whatever, I don’t think you get that sort of hybrid vigor explosion with any other genetic cross.”
Shane Bedwell, AHA chief operations officer and director of breed improvement, points out Hereford genetics provide additional heterosis due to the fact they are the least related of the Bos Taurus breeds, as documented by the Meat Animal Research Center.
“Heterosis and hybrid vigor on the black-hided cow or the red-hided cow, in my opinion, is a genetic explosion, whether it’s a steer or a heifer, whether they’re going to the feedlot or they’re being retained as bred female, as we do,” Koffskey said.
Residual returns
Studied through a different lens, Hereford-sired maternal heterosis adds increasingly more to the bottom line each year.
Researchers at the University of Tennessee (UT) modeled the economic difference between breeding Hereford bulls or Angus bulls to commercial Angus cows over 10 years. They used documented genetic differences between the breeds and real-world economics to assess annual net income and net worth for smaller operations (30 cows) and larger ones (500 cows).
“Cash is king,” said Charley Martinez, UT Extension livestock economist and lead project researcher. “Producers always ask us about net farm income. That’s what determines their tax liability and cash reserves. Any decision that impacts cashflow has long-term effects. The decision to alter what you buy or not sell, for instance, has a short-run effect on a producer’s net farm income in a given year.”
Longer term, all of those decisions contribute to net worth over time.
“People who choose to run cattle on their land are choosing to utilize those resources to generate wealth into the future rather than using the same resources to invest in the stock market, as an example,” Martinez explains. “Take your three classic financial documents, the income statement, your cashflow statement and your balance sheet. They show your operation’s net worth, and a key part of that is current assets including cash on hand. That’s why cash is king from an accounting standpoint.”
The magnitude of difference revealed in the study is staggering.
Martinez emphasizes the magnitude of difference rather than the specific dollar amounts are the key take-away from the analysis since every operation is unique.
“As a producer retains more black baldy females over time, the net impact of maternal heterosis is magnified. That’s what is driving the significant economic advantage over time,” Martinez said. “The bottom line is that with the rational assumptions made in these models, Hereford bulls returned significantly more average annual net income per cow per year and significantly more average annual net worth per cow per year than using Angus bulls in a commercial Angus herd over time.” — Wes Ishmael, Hereford World executive editor
