Producers highlight importance of efficiency in the cattle business

Feed-efficient cattle and efficient management practices – saving time and labor – can make the difference in whether or not a ranch can stay in business.  

Jim Jensen of Lucky 7 Angus Ranch raises Angus seedstock in Wyoming and feels strongly efficiency is the most important thing producers can focus on.  

“We need to run our ranches as a business, focusing less on emotion and as a way of life, to remain profitable,” he said.

Feed-efficient cattle

Jensen is adamant about producing cattle that are more feed efficient.  

“I think the cattle most people are raising today are the least efficient they’ve been for 40 years or more,” he shared. “The goal for some people is to raise bigger calves. Pretty soon, the ranchers who were running 300 head of cows are now running 180.”  

Bigger cows require more feed. Although calves are bigger, they also require more inputs. If producers select for bigger calves, their cow size also increases.

Ultimately, they are producing less total pounds of beef than they used to with 300 cows and spending more money to do it.

Jensen feels strongly feed efficiency is the most important thing in the beef industry.  

“The late Dr. Duane Warden, who bred Angus seedstock on his ranch near Council Bluffs, Iowa, tested cattle for feed efficiency for more than 30 years. He had a bull in 2012 that converted at 2.29 to one, which is close to competing with chickens and pigs. The average in the Angus breed was six to one,” said Jensen.  

Collecting feed intake data

Warden’s Farm collected feed intake data on their cattle since the early 1980s because Warden realized feed costs represent more than 60 percent of the total cost of raising cattle.  

He felt something should be done about reducing this cost of production and began selecting his cattle for feed efficiency. He calculated and used adjusted feed conversion (AFC) and residual feed intake (RFI) in all of his tested bulls.  

These two traits were his major focus, along with fertility, growth rate, marbling score, ribeye area and functional soundness in both the bull and its mother.

During 2010-11, Warden Farms performed feed intake tests and gain tests, as well as AFC and RFI evaluations on their bulls at the home place and at Iowa State University’s Beef Nutrition Farm, using the feed intake monitoring system, and the Hays Beef Development Center.  

These tests included 43 young bulls and 43 yearling heifers sired by Warden-bred bulls, in addition to a few artificially-inseminated (AI) sires selected because they were thought to sire progeny that excel at feed conversion.

The bulls and heifers sired by Warden-bred bulls were more efficient than those by AI sires and were 8.4 percent more efficient on average in dry matter conversion. The beef industry uses growth stimulants and feed additives to achieve better feed conversion but this goal can also be accomplished with genetics at no cost or labor to utilize.  

A thrifty cow herd

This kind of feed efficiency is important in the feedlot but also important to ranchers who are working to have an efficient, thrifty cow herd. The commercial cattleman needs cows that can thrive on forage the ranch produces and do well even on a dry year with no expensive inputs from purchased feeds, while continuing to be fertile and productive.

“Our goal on this place is to be able to produce bulls cheaper than anyone else in this business, so we have to do everything cheaper than everybody else. This guarantees we will be some of the last ones standing when things get really tough,” Jensen said. 

“This was our goal a long time ago – making our cattle work in conditions harsher than those of our commercial customers – and we’ve pushed it to the point we created a feed-efficient animal,” he added.  

“Every producer’s goal – whether purebred or commercial – should be focused toward becoming more efficient. We’d see a lot less turnover and a lot less complaining about people struggling and going broke. We have survived some drought, and I am embarrassed to tell people how well we’ve done during the recent drought, compared to some of the stories I’ve heard,” he continued. 

The cattle on the Lucky 7 Angus Ranch are hardy and efficient, which makes them better prepared to handle adversity.

“I have a bull customer near Laramie, who was in one of the biggest drought areas and many ranchers were selling out. After he started buying my bulls and raising daughters from those bulls, he started feeding less and in many years, he hardly feeds any hay,” Jensen shared.

“His place is at 7,200 feet in elevation and also gets a lot of wind. He uses windmills to pump stock water. During the 2012 drought, he had 5,000 round bales left from previous years because he wasn’t feeding his cows very much and hadn’t for several years,” he added.

University programs and research studies are usually funded by big companies which sell feed, fertilizer, chemicals, drugs, etc. – all of the inputs ranchers should be trying to get away from in order to be truly efficient and profitable. 

This ultimately influences the projects and studies that can be done at the various universities.

In order to become more efficient and have less costs in raising cattle, producers have to be innovative and think outside the box, looking beyond traditional wisdom and guidelines.

Heather Smith Thomas is a corresponding writer for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.