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| J.West's Elvis, British White Herd Sire |
Then on the afternoon of September 2nd, Polly (pictured here to the right)decided it was time to calve. This calving went on for a bit too long for my comfort, I even called to try to reach a vet just in case I had a problem on my hands. But in between rushing to the house and calling the vet and leaving a message of impending problems, she had delivered a healthy bull calf. (So of course I rushed back to the house and left another message for the vet that all was well!) I tape measured this newborn at a whopping 27 1/2 inches, and had Mike confirm the tape measurement as well this time. We both weighed the little guy and he weighed all of 60 pounds. But, per the tape conversion he should have weighed about 67 pounds -- a greater than 10% error, which in this business is a highly material error. 
Besides buzzing around in the Ranger, the girls took turns trying to blow an old horn made from a cow's horn, or maybe a bull, who really knows! The photo above is of Alana giving it one last try on the Eve of Easter with the weather turning very windy and cold. The cows were coming up for a look and a listen, not accustomed to hearing the quite odd sounds Alana managed to make with the old horn. The next picture is of Taylor, suited up in my coveralls again (and yes, I'd dearly love to find some feminine coveralls from someone somewhere....clothing manufacturers please listen!) We newby cowgirls would like to have a more ....feminine and better fitting coverall for cold days working the cows! And even some very light weight ones for the summer....
Note how Taylor is able to approach this two day old calf without it's dam, who is just to the right in the photo, having not any problem with Taylor's approach and touching of the newborn, beyond being . . .watchful. That's what is so wonderful about this breed, their trusting and docile nature. This particular cow is actually a British White half blood, her dam was an excellent registered black Angus cow who would have done much more than appear to glare a bit at Taylor's approach or touching of her calf -- her Angus dam would have knocked you down.
I think the heavy native clover growth must surely be due to all the rain this area has had the past several months, and perhaps as well to my haying of the cattle on this once red muddy hilltop these past few years, adding much needed organic matter to the soil -- as well as scraping top soil from other areas and spreading it somewhat thinly across the surface a few years back. The combination of those efforts and this very wet Spring seems to have paid off. 
Southeast Texas just had a few days of temperatures reaching the freezing point, seems unusual for this time of year, but fortunately no pipes burst and the ice in the troughs was minimal, but then lately I've got water leaks on what seems a daily basis, that's surely as effective at preventing pipes from bursting as setting a faucet on drip!
"Short grass is commonly thought of causing wormy cattle by the cattle grazing down where the worms are, but that thought is a misunderstanding. The reason that producers think that way is because the cows look wormy, when actually the cows' poor body and hair coat conditions are related to malnutrition from low intake of roughages on short grass pastures. When short grass is caused from dry conditions due to lack of rain and from overgrazing the slow growth of grass, the worms are not down there in the soil; the larvae have died from the dryness, and also from the heat in the summer.
When stomach worm eggs are passed in cattle manure, the eggs hatch in the manure. The larvae must be washed from the manure by rains. The larvae can only crawl (swim) up the grass blades while the grass is wet from rain or dew. As the grass dries, the larvae go back down to find moisture. As cattle graze dry grass, they don't ingest larvae. After weeks of dry weather, larvae die, and without grass mats for cover, all the larvae die, and the pastures become free of contamination. . ."
When I first became involved in the cattle business, which has only been since 2000, I ran across articles and comments about the higher nutritional plane of grass fed beef and grass fed dairy products. Since that beginning which piqued my interest, the Omega Plus eggs have come to market, organizations like US Wellness Meats cut their ribbon and began a successful growing and marketing plan for grass fed animal products. More and more small ranchers have paid attention and are focusing their breeding efforts on producing a steer that will fatten well and eat well on a diet solely based on grass and legumes. There is no question that grain fed beef has unnaturally high Omega 6 Fatty Acids, and very low levels of Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Conjugated Linoleic Acids (CLA's), Beta Carotene, and Vitamin E - several of the more important components contributing to the optimal function and maintenance of the human body. The Omega 3 Fatty Acids and the CLA's are of particular importance as beef and bovine dairy products are (or once were) major sources of these nutrients in the human diet.
As I've finally decided to actually harvest one of my steers, I want to fatten him up in such a way as to optimize the nutrition of the beef that I'll be putting in the freezer. (I'm a seedstock producer of British White cattle, and it's taken me since 2000 to get over the idea that these beautiful, gentle cattle couldn't find a place on my plate.) For all that I've read here and there about the benefits of grass fed beef, I found I was still uncertain as to what protocol was really required to produce grass fed meat with optimum nutrition.
Most of the really in-depth, reader friendly articles and narratives (of which there are many extremely well done and informative works) are written by those who have a grass fed product to sell and naturally they would be expected to promote their protocol as the 'the one' that is best. Pretty much across the board, all producers of grass fed beef indicate that the beef must be 100% grass fed. As my steer received grain last winter, I had to wonder if it was possible to overcome that effect by grass 'finishing'. I should mention that early this past summer of 2004 I began feeding dairy quality alfalfa hay to all my cattle, and intend to continue on this regimen as long as I'm raising cattle and can get the hay. I'm most definitely a convert to grass based production.
Based on the research data I've explored, I'm of the opinion that supplementing a growing steers diet with a grain product for a short period of time doesn't severely impact the nutritional quality of the meat. What is most important is that the final period of finishing be 100% grass and legumes. The final period of finishing would likely need to be a minimum of 60 days (though obviously the longer the better) to clear out the high Omega 6 levels in the fat of the animal and replace them with Omega 3's and CLA's, get the beta carotene levels (Vitamin A) in the fat of the animal up and raise the Vitamin E level in the muscle of the animal. No doubt I will be disagreed with vociferously by purists of grass fed beef production. I welcome that, as well as direction to the research that will prove otherwise.
When we humans eat, the vitamins and minerals are broken down in our gut and make it to our blood stream where they go where they're supposed to go - some are water soluble, like Vitamin C, and our bodies use what we need and excrete the rest. Other's are fat soluble, like beta carotene, and the amounts we consume in excess are stored in our fat and used by our body as needed. Apparently, the same is true for Omega 6's - no doubt most of us have entirely too much stored in our body fat due to the grain fed meat and milk we consume, but Omega 6 isn't stored in our body fat forever; it's there to be used by our bodies, like the beta carotene that is stored in our fat, and we use it up. If we know that consuming high Omega 3 foods, like grass fed beef, works to restore the recommended optimal balance of Omega 6 to Omega 3 in our own bodies, then surely we can get the Omega 6 levels reduced and Omega 3's raised in a beef steer. Same goes for beta carotene, vitamin E, and CLA's.
Now obviously I'm not a scientist, and my opinion is just that, an opinion, or rather an educated guess based on simple logic and review of some of the various research articles cited on this web site which explore the opposite side of this argument, i.e. the change in the nutritional plane of a grass fed animal once it is placed on grain feed.
I'm going to finish my steer on spring grass and alfalfa, and hopefully harvest him around May of 2005. Once I have a look at the beef, I'm guessing he will have nicely yellowed fat (beta carotene), bright red color (Vitamin E), sweet gamey taste (my crimson clover and coastal bermuda and the CLA's), 1/4 inch backfat (trait of the British White breed), and the steaks will be lean and finely marbled (trait of the British White breed). (Note: Will update here shortly, the exellent results upon final harvest of "Dinner", the name my little sister gave him one Thanksgiving when we were working the herd!)
I should also add a highly interesting bit of information regarding the very final phase of preparing a grass fed animal for slaughter. It seems that beef animals, like we humans, store glycogen from the carbohydrates in their diet. A grass based diet is naturally low in carbohydrates; a grain based diet is high in carbohydrates. As the grass fed beef animal has low stores of glycogen, it's seems to be fairly easy to deplete those glycogen stores in a matter of hours under stress or exercise. Depletion of glycogen causes dark-cutting meat; thus it is very important that the grass fed animal be handled as humanely as possible in the hours leading up to kill. Harvesting the animal in sync with lush seasonal grasses will give you the highest glycogen level at harvest as well as providing optimal nutrition in the end product.
Now that the USDA has approved the use of these new grading instruments, there will be much less error in sorting carcasses to standard, select, choice, or prime. What may surely follow this new grading approach is the ability for these same electronic grading devices to capture the EID of the carcass. Once that happens, the carcass quality of your feeder calves that result from your farm or ranch operation will be identified..........and the Feedlot buyers will hear it from the packing houses, and those Feedlot Buyers will begin targeting calves from cattle operations that are bringing home the Choice and Prime for the Packing house....cause that's what brings home the money in this business!
We need to seriously consider establishing Ultrasound Guidelines for our yearling bulls that are potential herd prospects, as well as our yearling heifers. Wouldn't it be a nice if when the day comes that carcasses can be identified straight to the source those Packing houses find that British White carcasses are grading a very high percentage choice and prime!
Increased demand for British White bulls in commercial operations will only come with recognition of the value of their carcass traits. Ultrasound measurements are an invaluable tool in selecting/breeding our seedstock to produce desirable and heritable carcass traits. Always remember that a 'fat calf' in no way means it's a calf that will produce a choice or prime carcass. Underneath all those layers of fat, a very standard grade ribeye could easily be lurking!
USDA Approves Two Instrument Systems For Beef Carcass Marbling Scores
"Consistent grading, however, has been a problem from its earliest days; a USDA inspector eyeballed every ribeye and made a decision about each carcass in a scant few seconds. It’s a fatigue inducing job that requires a changeover of personnel every 30 minutes. Blink and you miss seeing something critical. Rub your eye and two rib eyes could speed by unseen. Had a rough night? Those bleary eyes probably aren’t going to see things the same way they did a few days ago. And, of course, a purely visual grade assignment is hardly a way to insure consistency."
"Grading errors are costly. Judge a carcass too low and the plant loses money. Judge it too high and a consumer will be disappointed with the eating “experience” and might be lost as a customer."
"RMS personnel spent three days and captured data on over 4,000 animals at each plant. With thousands of observations, they met the agreed upon standard of consistency exceeding 95%."
". .“It’s a computer vision system,” said Goldberg. “A cable connects a color camera to a computer. The operator takes a picture of each rib eye and the picture is digitized and sent to the computer. The operator has data on the rib eye area, meat and fat color, fine and coarse marbling and other measures before he can take the camera away. It takes about one second to analyze the image and display the results.” . . "
The American Angus Association (AAA) recorded 347,572 registrations in FY 2006 (ended Sept. 30), growing by more than 7% from the previous year. Transfers — the sales of cattle to new owners — also increased 7% to 206,121. Of registrations processed, more than 10% were embryo transfer calves and nearly 49% of all animals registered were A.I. sired. In addition, AAA repor
14% more Angus bulls sold via auction sales attended by AAA regional managers, and averaged more than $135/head over a year ago. Female sales also increased, averaging $243 more per lot than FY 2005.
A 6% growth in breeder participation in its Beef Improvement Records (BIR) program. Nearly 9,700 herds submitted more than 882,000 birth, weaning and yearling weights. Additionally more than 150,000 ultrasound measurements were submitted — an 18.5% increase.
AngusSource
A record 13.1 million cattle were ID'd for the Certified Angus Beef Program, which sold more than 543 million lbs. of branded product this year, the highest since 2003.
This was probably the frostiest morning we've had this fall, the pond in the picture has that eery, misty look that comes with the new cold weather. You can't quite see the mist, but you can get the idea.
Too often some visitors to my ranch comment that their calm character is surely due to the "time I must spend with them".
As Breeders of this very special, uniquely beautiful, ancient breed we all know different. Their gentleness begins before birth, it's inherent in their genetic makep-up. Wanda Mae, the curious cow checking out what Mike's up to, isn't the norm in any cow herd, and she's been human-friendly since the day she arrived, as are her calves. It's a very HERITABLE trait.
Every scientific research report that one comes upon points to the fact that the calmer the feeder calf the better the carcass. One day it will be realized that when a commerical cattleman puts a British White Bull on his herd his calves are calmer, their growth is superior, and their carcass brings to them a premium over Black Angus, a highly volatile breed.
The DNA testing accomplished to date indicates the British White breed tests as well as as the much more aggressive and temperamental black Angus breed in terms of marbling and tenderness.
As DNA testing via GeneStar and/or Igenity progresses and is reported to and compiled by the BWCAA and members, I fully expect the results to continue to be superior and to further establish British White cattle as THE Beef Breed of the Future for genetic Tenderness combined with genetic Docility -- a combination no other breed can match -- and a combination that the Commercial Feedlot operator will not ignore and will demand from commerical cattlemen. Numerous articles are to be found on the positive impact on carcass quality from docile feeder calves in the chute and the feedlot.