4 minute read
Adding Value Feeder Calves :
by Lilly Platts
Customers are a seedstock producer’s number one priority. From listening to their feedback to staying up to date on trends in the beef industry, breeders are tasked with making sure the genetics they produce are going to make their customers money, and help them improve their cow herds long-term. The nature of the cattle business makes it difficult to ensure that this added genetic value is rewarded when feeder calves are sold. The Feeder Profit Calculator (FPC), and Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force go hand-in-hand in helping seedstock producers give their customers tools, and in promoting the use of quantitative genetic merit in feeder calf marketing.
Dr. Ken Odde recently teamed up with ASA’s Chip Kemp and Eichacker Simmentals to share about these important tools. Odde, who works as a SimSpecialist for ASA, is also a longtime producer and professor emeritus at Kansas State University. He has a deep knowledge of both genetics and the nature of raising and marketing feeder calves.
Odde recently signed on to be the lead facilitator for the Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force. This industry-wide effort is a collection of breed associations, professionals ranging from scientists to feeders, and individual producers. The American Simmental Association joined the task force, and has provided funding for the effort.
The overarching goal of the Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force is to increase the percentage of feeder cattle marketed using quantitative genetic information. Traditionally, this information is not shared with potential buyers. Genetics are a solid indicator of how a calf is going to perform after weaning; heterosis, growth, and marbling for example, are reliable predictors of how healthy and profitable an animal will be. Producers, who invest significant time and money into producing these high-quality animals, and buyers, who are taking on the risk of getting an animal to finish, can both benefit financially if value is placed on genetic merit.
The FPC takes into account measures that add genetic merit to an animal and calculates the added value those animals should garner at weaning. Pedigree information and health protocol are important pieces, and the FPC uses this genetic information to evaluate potential performance. The producer then receives a certificate, which can be taken to the sale barn, added as a supplement at video auction, or handed directly to a buyer.
Spreading the Word
These tools are only valuable if producers know about them, which was a goal of the gathering at Eichacker Simmentals. Odde and Eichacker took the time to meet with a representative at Mitchell Livestock Marketing before the event, getting insight from the marketing side, and working to better understand how to spread the word about tools like the FPC.
Eichacker owns and operates a seedstock business alongside his family. A large part of their business is focused on selling SimGenetics bulls to commercial producers. Eichacker shared, “The FPC is a great tool, but if the day a commercial guy goes to sell these calves, the sale barn isn’t on the same page with you bringing in the FPC certificate, you wasted your time. They’re not going to recognize the genetic merit of your calves at the auction block.”
Eichacker and Odde saw an opportunity to spread the word about these valuable tools. “We decided that we need to start telling the story. If you tell it and put the word out, pretty soon more people will know about it. It will start resonating with them,” Eichacker said.
Odde shared about the Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force, and Kemp gave a presentation to the 60 producers in attendance about the FPC. Tim Clark, a member of the ASA Board of Trustees, was in attendance, and helped spread the word about the event. “It was very well attended, by both seedstock producers and commercial cow-calf producers. It was a good balance of both,” Clark shared. “Chip and Dr. Odde both did a tremendous job presenting.”
ASA SimSpecalists like Odde are available across the country to help facilitate educational events and spread the word about valuable tools like the FPC. For more information, please visit simmental.org. To learn more about the Genetic Merit Pricing Task force, check out the Late Fall issue of SimTalk in print, or online at simmental.org. .
