THese ARe Not Your Father’s Feedyard Results

By: Pete Anderson, Ph.D. Midwest PMS, LLC

The cattle industry may change slowly but it does change. Over time, those changes can be significant. It is difficult to notice gradual shifts in the cattle population so there is value in taking an occasional look back to see how things have changed.

I was recently asked to do just that for a symposium organized by the American Society of Animal Science. With data from three sources, I was able to take a look at trends in feedyard performance over time. These data show some very positive trends and also a few areas that need improvement.

The first set of data came from the Benchmark Performance Program, provided graciously by my friends at Elanco. The next few charts include mean performance of steers and heifers for the years 2000-2016. These charts include data from 72 million steers and 54 million heifers fed across the US.

The Benchmark data show some clear trends. Cattle are heavier coming into feedyards. During this period, placement weight increased by around 50 lb in both steers and heifers (figure 1). Weight out increased even more, approximately 150 lb in steers and 125 lb in heifers (figure 2). The equation on the chart reflects the slope and intercept of the steer data, indicating an increase of 10 lb/year. With feeder weights up a little and fed weights up a lot, the amount of weight added must surely have increased and the data show that to be true (figure 3). This increase is partly due to more days on feed (about 20 days for steers and 15 for heifers) as well as higher performance (figure 4).

ADG increased by about 10% in both steers and heifers (figure 5). While the chart indicates that feed conversion improved only slightly, since that improvement occurred in heavier cattle, it actually represents an improvement in true (energetic) efficiency of 0.75% per year (figure 6).

The Midwest PMS performance database offers further support of excellent performance. It used to be rare for steers to gain more than 4 lb per day or convert below 6.0 (dry basis). In the past two years, 33% of the steer lots reported to Midwest PMS gained 4.0 lb/d or higher, 62% converted below 6.0, and 29% of steer lots accomplished both feats. That shows that high performance levels that used to be a real accomplishment are now industry standard.

Bigger, higher performing cattle would be expected to have heavier, fatter carcasses and indeed they do.

The chart in figure 7 shows increased carcass weight in the Benchmark database with a rate of increase of 4.3 lb/year in heifers and 7.2 lb/year in steers. The increased weight, along with other industry changes, especially in genetics, has resulted in a much higher percentage of carcasses grading USDA Choice or Prime. In 2016, Benchmark carcass data showed an average of almost 75% Choice and Prime in heifers and nearly 70% in steers (figure 8). Both steers and heifers show substantial increases in marbling since 2000. More recent USDA data indicate that the 2018 national average could reach 80% Choice and Prime, which would be the highest in modern history.

This increase in carcass quality is a great industry success story and has resulted in greater eating satisfaction among beef consumers. This is a key element of current very strong beef demand. This was a necessary improvement that the industry agreed was badly needed in the 1990s. Proof comes from the third set of meaningful data for this conversation, the National Beef Quality Audit. Sponsored by NCBA, the NBQA was first conducted in 1991 and has been repeated at approximately 5-year intervals since. Each of the first three audits (1991, 1995, and 2000) listed marbling and tenderness as high priority areas for improvement. In those years, fewer than half of all beef carcasses graded Choice and lack of tenderness was a common consumer complaint about beef. All facets of the industry agreed on the need to improve marbling and worked well together to accomplish that increase. Consumers and cattle producers alike have benefited.

But every silver lining has a cloud. Here is the downside to making cattle bigger and improving quality – more carcasses are too fat. The percentage of USDA Yield Grade 4 and 5 carcasses has doubled in heifers and quadrupled in steers since 2000, according to Benchmark data (figure 9). Data from Dr. Ty Lawrence at West Texas A&M (data not shown) indicate that the problem is a result of both excess fatness and light muscling. Dr. Lawrence’s data indicate that

64% of YG 4 and 5 carcasses exceed the fatness threshold and a remarkable 99.5% do not have adequate muscling!

While there are some problems in applying the decades-old yield grade equations to the current cattle population, it cannot be denied that many carcasses are too fat and/or not muscular enough. We have made great progress in quality and palatability. One of the next areas of emphasis should be maintaining or increasing that quality while taking some extra fat off and adding some muscle. Since intramuscular fat (marbling) and external carcass fat are positively correlated (when one increases, the other usually does as well), this will be a challenge. The good news is that improved genetic tools will be available that make it easier to achieve that goal.

Chuckles From Down Under

Collected By:

Jane Sullivan, Bell Veterinary Services

A young girl who was writing a paper for school came to her father and asked, “Dad, what is the difference between annoyance, anger and exasperation?”

The father replied, “It is mostly a matter of degree. Let me show you what I mean.”

With that, the father pulled out his phone and dialed a number at random. To the man who answered the phone, he said, “Hello, is Melvin there?”

The man answered, “There’s no one living here named Melvin. Why don’t you learn to look up numbers before you dial?”

“See,” said the father to his daughter, “that man was not a bit happy with our call. He was probably very busy with something and we annoyed him. Now watch .…”

The father dialed the number again. “Hello, is Melvin there?” he asked.

“Now look here!” came the heated reply. “You just called this number and I told you that there’s no Melvin here! You’ve got a lot of nerve calling here again!” The receiver slammed down hard.

The father turned to his daughter and said, “You see, that was anger. Now I’ll show you what exasperation means.”

He again dialed the same number and when the violent voice roared, “Hello!” the father calmly said, “Hello, this is Melvin. Have there been any calls for me?”

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