British White Breeders Looking to Cut Down on Tradional Meds & Wormers - Read Dr. Buddy's Blog - TAMU

September 08, 2006 Dr. Buddy's Blog

When is the right time to deworm cattle in 2006? (Click on the outlined boxes for the photos....sorry, don't know why they aren't showing in thumbnail!) (Update 12-09-06, Photo of day after arrival home at the ranch is posted below in the body of this blog, note the bull, JWest's McCluskey, opposite the fence that is right at one month older than all 5 ET calves, and obviously raised very well by his dam DFTX Snowflake. Always ensure that Recipient Dams are Healthy and will be fed well by your ET program provider.)

"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. . ."

The images you see above (may have to click on a little box, they're not wanting to load properly, but if you click on the outlined box they will load!) are of extremely dirty, barren, over grazed conditions at an ET Facility in Athens, Texas in early fall last year, one can only imagine the level of filth that continued to accumulate around them, it's a pretty good guess that no one there understands, or wishes to work at, the concept of dragging a pasture after rotation. These calves came home underweight, sickly, and have yet to thrive and grow like their peers, and one heifer is permanently blinded by pinkeye in one eye. This would be an example of conditions that Require worming and medication, quite regularly. A well run cattle operation, whether Grass or Grain based, should never reach this level of living conditions for any Seedstock cattle, much less Embryo Transfer calves. Actually, I wish to never see these conditions in any cattle operation.

" . .While pastures are contaminated with larvae, it may be cost effective to worm if the cattle have become exposed to enough larvae during 3 6 weeks of continuous rains with soil temperatures of 55 85 degrees when the larvae are active. If these conditions occur in the spring on some pastures; the timing to worm the cattle is following 3 6 weeks of continuous rain. If the rains come on contaminated pastures, that would make deworming cattle in May but not all pastures are contaminated because of the drought and good management practices. With rains in a cold April,..........." Follow the link above to read the rest of this blog!

Grassfed Beef Protocol - Results of Jimmie's Initial Research Into Why Grassfed?

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.

Electronic Carcass Grading in Our Slaughter Plants - EID Next? They'll Be Able to Track where that Carcass came from? Breed, Owner, Etc...

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

The Cattle Network, November 20, 2006

EXCERPTS:

"They overlooked one of the most ground breaking advances in the long and checkered history of beef grading. For the first time, the beef industry has a reliable system capable of consistently determining marbling scores without the uncertainty of fallible human eyes."

"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.” . . "

British White Cattle - They REALLY are more GENTLE than Other Breeds!

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.

British White Breeders - Better Growth Trait Recording is Needed

The following article mentions the significant growth the Angus breed has seen this past year in the reporting of birth weight, weaning weight, and yearling weight by their members -- also of great significance is the 18.5% increase in members reporting yearling ultrasound results to their Association. This increase in ultrasound measurements highlights the growing recognition of it's value to individual breeding programs. If you would like to see the BWCAA establish Ultrasound Guidelines for your benefit and direction, be sure and contact the association and voice your opinion.

Many British White breeders have weaning and yearling weights that we never get around to sending to the Association, including myself! But those weights are very important information that can help you in your breeding decsions as well as in the marketing of your animals. Ultrasound Measurements will do likewise. If you decide to do it on your own, be sure and use a Certified Ultrasound Technician and have the images sent to CUP Labs in Iowa, the Lab that is considered the premier lab for accurate image analysis. If you'd like to know how to find a technician or other details about yearling ultrasound measures, send me an email.


Nov 1, 2006 12:00 PM

Beef Magazine

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^®, which earned USDA Process Verified Program status the past year, posted a 4% enrollment increase.

• 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.

Buddy the Dog Has a Comfy Spot on a Cold November Morning

I've not been spending enough time relaxing with a good book out on the porch for some time now......so my dogs have been making good use of the chaise lounges lately. This is Buddy pictured here. Before the past few months, he would have jumped and run if I'd found him lounging on the chaise! But I haven't been staying on top of that lately, haven't been taking that leisure time myself so have begun to enjoy watching them through the window having a nice time on the porch enjoying the view. 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.

British White Calves in the Summer of 2006

I really like this shot of my curious and gentle British White calves from this past summer, we were very fortunate here in deep East Texas to get ample rainfall until about September. In my memory, September is supposed to always be a month for rains in East Texas, but I think it's just significant events I recall in many Septembers that had rain in the background. Maybe I'll get a good shot of these same calves this morning, it's a crisp and clear day.

A Halliburton Farms Bull With Red Ears

This bull calf was born at Halliburton Farms on March 27, 2006. His sire is Halliburton Rito and out of a dam by the name of Queen Bean Two. He has four generations of Purebred Ancestors on both sides of his pedigree and as such will be qualified to sire American Fullblood British Whites if bred to the right female. Of course that is assuming he makes it to Herd Sire capacity.

The first picture was taken when he was just a few days old and was used as my Picture of The Week. See http://www.britishwhite.com/powarchive12.htm and again as a near weaning age calf with his dam, http://www.britishwhite.com/powarchive14.htm



The second picture was taken about the same time as the first one, notice how nice and clean he is in both pictures. You might also take a look at that grass cover. We usually expect it to be a pretty green, nice and lush this time of year. OhWell! Maybe next year. I've been through a few droughts in my life and best I remember each one ended with a good rain and this one may do the same.

The third picture was taken on September 17, 2006 after a long dry summer and it really shows in all the dirt gathered in his hair. He is growing into a very adequate size but won't be an extremely large bull, I hope. I'll be keeping my eye on him for a while.

I recently had him DNA GeneStar tested by Bovigen to see if he carried any of the favorable genes for Tenderness and Quality Grade. I am happy to say he has three stars for Tenderness, one star for Quality Grade and a -1.0 GPD.

Feel free to call ahead and stop by Halliburton Farms if you would like to see him with your own eyes.