Town Creek Farm Since 1993
WINTER 2019
Vo l u m e 7 , I s s u e 1 • P u b l i s h e d b y To w n C r e e k Fa r m , We s t Po i n t , M i s s i s s i p p i • B r a n g u s a n d U l t r a b l a c k
Things We Can’t See BY JOY REZNICEK
DURING OUR FALL SALE CATTLEMEN FROM ARKANSAS TO FLORIDA EXPRESSED STRONG CONCERNS OF THE NATURAL DIVERGENCE AWAY FROM BRAHMAN BLOOD in registered Brangus,
WINTER HAS BEEN WET, WET, WET. WISH WE COULD SAVE SOME FOR SUMMER.
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Town Creek Farm Milton Sundbeck, Owner Office: 32476 Hwy. 50 East West Point, Mississippi 39773-5207 662.494.5944 www.TownCreekFarm.com Joy Reznicek, President 205.399.0221 Joy@TownCreekFarm.com Clint Ladner, Bull Development 662.812.8370 CLadner@TownCreekFarm.com South American Representative Ing. Agr. Federico Maisonnave (011) 595 981 362 898 Skype: federico.maisonnave Maisonnave.Federico@gmail.com TOTAL COMMITMENT
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both through purposeful selection pressure toward Angus phenotypes, and a shift to Ultrablack cattle by breeding an Angus to a Brangus. The problem has been exacerbated by a recently introduced system of breeding up to Brangus with Ultrablacks. Phenotypic selection biases and adding Angus content to Brangus has enabled registered Brangus breeders to improve carcass, growth, early puberty, and fertility traits in their cowherds. This bent, however, has diminished heat tolerance, longevity, adaptability, production efficiency, heterosis and other critical traits that make Brangus sired replacement heifers so effective in the Southern tier of the United States. In the 1990s, Joe Reznicek and Cow Creek Ranch recognized potential benefits of imparting a high percent of Angus into heavily Brahman influenced native-type Florida cowherds. Understanding straight Angus bulls would not hold up in Florida, Cow Creek Ranch bred Brangus to Angus and named them Ultrablacks. Retaining 3/16th Brahman content was important to survivability and heat tolerance of Ultrablack bulls, but it was Angus blood that helped remodeled Florida cowherds. Crossbreeding took hold in the 1960s and 1970s with the introduction of Continental breeds such as Charolais and Simmental, which were crossed with traditional English or Taurus breeds. Weaning weights increased dramatically with first crosses. Other breeds were added to the crossbreeding mix over time. Benefits of heterosis were experienced from coast to coast. Crossbred cattle gradually fell out of favor over the last 15 to 20 years as programs like Certified Angus Beef and other value-added premium carcass programs were established. The use of Angus bulls in commercial beef herds increased significantly providing both carcass and maternal advantages. In fact, subtle trends toward black-hided, uniform cattle transformed commercial crossbred cowherds to straight-bred cowherds. At the beginning of this movement, and depending on your starting point, massive numbers of crossbred cows, many native cows to specific environments but too colorful and inconsistent, demanded purebred bulls that would sire calves with consistency, predictability and a preferable black hair coat to fit value-added programs.
Maternal crossbreeding also gave rise to a significant increase in the use of Brangus bulls in the Southern one-third of United States. Brangus bulls check all the maternal boxes needed to develop predictable, adaptable and fertile straight breed cowherds: heat tolerance, mothering ability, black hair coat and polled with built-in heterosis. Many traits are influenced by Brahman blood, including tolerance of endophyte in Kentucky 31 fescue. Along the way though, Brangus breeders lost focus of critical roles that Brahman influence plays in longevity, heat tolerance, slick hair, mothering ability, disease and tick resistance, and heterosis. Many of these traits are difficult to see and can only be realized over time. We can eyeball underlines, sheath designs, scurs, hair coat color and phenotype. Yet, longevity and fertility can only be discovered over the life of a female. Often things we can’t see provide great value. In a conversation with a customer who bought and used hundreds of Brangus bulls, he stated to me that I should never forget that the reason cattlemen use Brangus bulls is to raise replacement females. This statement has never left my mind. Nine years ago we started seeing a tipping point, too much Angus influence in our own Brangus cowherd and its regressive genetic affects. From then until now we’ve made many changes in how we breed, and how we think about our responsibility of breeding Brangus cattle. Our observations were stimulus to start a program of developing large numbers of first generation Brangus cattle through in vitro fertilization using the traditional method of two breeding’s with Brahman and two breeding’s of Angus. Our plan is do this on a continuous basis. Sons of first generation 3/8-5/8 bulls offer our customers Brangus bulls that will pass along heterosis and retained heterosis. Science tells us that heterosis is maintained in subsequent generations of crosses, after the first cross in composite breeds like Brangus. Practical application tells us that added Angus content in Brangus cattle does not produce hybrid vigor and dilutes some relevant traits that could jeopardize our prominence as a maternal beef breed. For 30 years Town Creek Farm and Cow Creek Ranch have practiced disciplined longterm breeding programs focused on maternal traits. We prioritized fertility, longevity, moderate size (stocking rate), udder quality, and adaptability (survivability) as fundamental factors to profit as it relates to genetics and selection pressure. Maybe it’s time we all go back to the eye doctor.