RobertMac
Well-known member
Larry Leonhardt presented the following
at Beef Improvement Federation Conference, Wichita, Kansas
July 12-15-2000
If producers want to stay in business, we have to breed cattle that work in our environment on the natural resources of our land and without any help from us. The untold secret is that calves from those cows also work in the feed lot.
at Beef Improvement Federation Conference, Wichita, Kansas
July 12-15-2000
Larry Leonhardt
Shoshone Angus
Breeding Objectives - Convenience Traits
When I was asked to give a presentation on "convenience-
traits", I wasn't just sure what this term all entailed. The
unmeasured qualities that make cow-calf production easier and reduce
human stress are actually more than a convenience; they are
essential to producer profitability. Basic maternal characteristics
such as disposition, mothering ability, functional conformation,
longevity, etc. are often compromised or overlooked during our
efforts to produce more pounds of the preferred product of the day
in a shorter period of time. Ultimately these compromises tend to
get us in trouble. So today, I want to focus more on functional
conformation and/or type.
About 20 years ago I rearranged my own selection priorities
with a portion of the herd. The objective was to develop and
stabilize a more specific type with primary emphasis exclusively on
maternal function. A working cow's job never really changes. Yet,
the bulk of the industry is continually changing types. Each new
type that becomes more popular is thought to be better, it seems
like the "grass always looks greener on the other side of the
fence". Consequently, many of today's cow herds are basically a
sorted by-product of many types.
Historically, the beef industry has been a good example of
the 'tail wagging the dog". The most preferred type of cattle for
the end product always seem to have a negative economic impact on
the production end. For example, as a youth during the birth of the
baby beef era, I had a chance to participate in a tour of a famous
ranch near Cheyenne, Wyoming. What I remember most was seeing
their highly prized imported "baby beef" bulls. The bulls were
smaller than their cows but Al solved that breeding problem. During
this 20-year baby beef era, the more popular purebred herds promoted
imported pedigrees and nurse cows were common. Today, we have
numerical pedigrees and recipient cows.
When the priorities changed from too short and fat to too
tall and/or too lean, those types also
had a serious negative impact on the production end. For
the last 35 years the primary objective with any type has been to
produce more pounds in a shorter period of time utilizing A I,
frame score, performance testing, EPD and embryo transfer. Cattle
became larger, however, when compounding Cow-calf problems and a
loss of quality grade reached the point where the
problems offset the benefits; the industry began to
downsize the big cattle. And today the most treasured types are
those in a more moderate framed, thicker package - termed
the "spread" cattle with more "natural thickness" (whatever that
is). I am reminded of the more extreme thick types of the baby beef
era when we had three C-sections out of eleven heifers with 50-55#
birth weights from 270 day gestation periods.
In a direction towards selecting superior individual
animals that seem to do more things better
and faster, the move ambitious breeders have evolved to
across-breed composite selection
maximizing heterosis. All purpose composites, whether
straight-bred or cross-bred, seem to work well, at least in the
short term, since nature tends to "balance' the diversity.
But despite all these genuine efforts to increase
production, a growing complaint often heard today from the cow-calf
producer to the consumer is the overall lack of consistency. Yet,
how can a cow herd produce consistency when they are the consequence
of continual change ...a sorted by-product of different types.
We seem to be so wrapped up measuring EPD, turning the generations
so rapidly to get a higher set of numbers, that we cannot possibly
know what profound effects these cattle being produced en masse may
have down the road on the basic unmeasured maternal traits and
environmental adaptability.
We have become accustomed to the mind-set that we can cull
away our problems - but the more we want each animal to do, the more
we sort. Ultimately, a cow-calf producer's economic losses from the
sorted calls have to be deducted from the increased value produced by
the keepers. The purebred breeder gets enough premiums from his
keepers to afford the sort, not so for the commercial producer. So
I believe at some point in time, some breeders will have to
establish and stick with a type form where it all begins, the cow,
others will breed complimentary male lines in a coordinated effort
to reduce the sort.
The Purpose of Purebreds
The purpose of a purebred is to offer more predictability
or continuity generation after generation. If the objective is to
improve product consistency and do it more efficiently without
sacrifice to production end, the industry must look at what the rest
of agriculture is doing and forego the persistent habits of the past
trying to cram all the beneficial traits into one super parent. The
dairy people traded beefiness for milk. The pork people finality
accepted the genetic reality that the mother pig could not do her
best job and also be the meatiest. And we can't successfully plant
a 120 day corn in an 80 day environment.
I remain more convinced than ever that the industry will
ultimately stabilize, not mongrelize, male and female parent lines
designed for hybrid production. Selection for a more suitable beef
cow that will reduce production problems and also enhance product
consistency has got to be one of the most difficult, time consuming
and challenging jobs in all of agriculture. The limiting factors are
the constraints of her environment and negative trait
correlations. Most beef cows are maintained on terrain
unsuitable for cropping. They seldom enjoy the optimum environment
that is provided for the poultry, pork and dairy production units.
So a "one size fits all" approach is unlikely to happen. But
ultimately there is a type that will predominate all others, simply
because if she can do her job in a less than optimum environment,
she is also likely to be efficient in a better environment.
The type that will most likely prevail show up by chance in
almost everyone's pasture, they are the old reliable "stayers" with
longevity (fewer problems), not the "sprinters" who wear out to
quickly. To find or describe an ideal is easy; the difficulty is in
figuring out how to replicate them more often. We are witnessing
the growing popularity of the Angus cow in the commercial arena,
gradually replacing the crossbred cow. This did not come about
because of promotion, higher milk and growth EPD or color of the
Angus cow. It is occurring because of commercial production
problems. It is a tribute to those Angus breeders who have paid more
attention to the basic maternal "convenience traits" and preserved
the breed's inherent qualities. While the crossbred cow was the
salvation to the commercial producer from years of neglect by
purebred breeders, I do not believe we have to rely on the effects
of heterosis to uphold adequate maternal values.
Selection for a Maternal Type
I have spent about 30 years of trial and error inbreeding
and outbreeding. In my efforts to identify and establish a more
consistent preferred type, selective close breeding is a tool I use
to reduce variation quicker. Within a production level, my
selection favors an attentive mother with a sensible disposition,
who has an overall moderate and symmetrical conformation with strong
sexual distinction. When I select the bulls I use, I visualize
their five to ten generation pedigrees as a pen of cattle. In an
ideal "pen", the cows in the pen would be more similar to the
preferred type. Of course, the same cow appears in the "pen"
several times among the more inbred stock. Since the bulls are
simply the progenitors for the maternal characteristics, their
individual performance is secondary. While I have flirted with a
few of the more extreme bulls within the population, I have finally
learned to avoid them altogether.
In general I have not observed the expected decline in
fertility from close breeding even through some animals carry
inbreeding coefficients as high as 40%. Initially, I was concerned
that the males might become more feminine or "steery". To the
contrary, today the bulls are more virile or masculine, have
stronger libido with dispositions friendly to man. I believe this
can be attributed to the balanced selection criteria since I did
have more production problems close breeding extremes. The cow herd
has become more similar in type and it appears that the production
level or EPD of the measured traits in the more preferable portion
of the herd is stabilizing around breed average.
The basic role or breeding objective for this maternal line
is for more efficient and consistent commercial hybrid production
systems. I would be happy to discuss any specific questions you may
have.
Thank you.
If producers want to stay in business, we have to breed cattle that work in our environment on the natural resources of our land and without any help from us. The untold secret is that calves from those cows also work in the feed lot.
