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Breeding for a More Efficient and Profitable Commercial Cow
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Troy Rowan presented at the Kentucky Beef Efficiency Conference, January 5th, 2023.
Since 1970, we are producing the same amount of beef with fewer cows. The beef industry is a plant based meat.
In our selection, we often focus on the end of the year revenue. However, much of what impacts our profitability is on the cost side of the equation. If we are going to select for a single trait, that single trait has to be profitability. Which traits matter to our bottom line? We often think about things in terms of cow units. But, what really pushes our production is our forage resources. Can we make our cows more efficient at turning those forage resources into a marketable product?
What does a profitable cow look like? "A profitable cow is an efficient cow," says Rowan. There are lots of different ways to be inefficient and efficient. An efficient cow is:
- Moderate Mature Size
- Maintenance Requirement
- Milk
- Fertility
- Longevity
- Structural Soundness
- Udder structure
- Emissions
"The return on investment of an open cow is depressingly low." -- Unknown source
The easiest way to improve all of these cow efficiency traits is to CROSSBREED!
There is a two-fold advantage of crossbreeding, breed complementarity and heterosis. Breed complementarity allows us to align multiple breed strengths, such as growth and fertility or environmental adaptability.
In corn breeding, we get a very consistent and productive product by crossing inbreeding lines to get a very productive plant. We can't completely inbred cattle like corn, but we can still see improvement from crossbreeding. We see the biggest improvement from crossbreeding (heterosis) for lowly heritable traits such as maternal ability, reproduction, health, immune function, etc.
Less than 50% of commercial herds crossbred! This is our industries last free lunch.
The next easiest way to improve cow efficiency is to buy the right bull. Bull selection plays an outsized role in genetic progress. In a one bull herd, our last three bull purchases account for 87.5% (on average) of the genetics in your calf crop!
Can we make breeding decisions that increase forage-based cow efficiency? This is a multi-faceted problem. There are lots of EPDs to balance and juggle at once. We have to do multi-trait selection. Multiple trait selection is hard.
- Many traits matter
- They matter in different amounts
- Traits may be correlated with each other
- Input costs change, altering trait's importance
- Variation in each operation's selection goals
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Joe C. Paschal