1. Uintah High School Agricultural Sciences Mr. Wilson
Beef Cattle
Uintah High School
Agricultural Sciences
Mr. Wilson

2. In your notebooks… Make a list of ten benefits of beef cattle!
Make a list of as many breeds of beef cattle that you can.
List all the people you can think of that raise beef cattle.

3. Beef Cattle Science term for cattle is what? Bovine
Just like Canine is a dog
and feline is a cat.

4. Beef production is big business in the U.S. ...
Largest single portion of U.S. agricultural economy
$40+ billion in direct sales
18% of total agricultural sales

5. Evolution of Beef Industry
Early civilization- cattle used for milk and some meat production,
Meat was much leaner than today's beef
Grass fed
Smaller framed
Less muscle
As farming practices evolved and corn belt was formed the beef industry changed.

6. Evolution of Beef Industry
Railroad also contributed to the centralization of large cattle feedlots in the center of the country
Started “segmentation”

7. Beef Industry Segmentation
“Segmented" -- several producers own a single animal between birth and slaughter.
Cow/calf producers - calves born in spring
Stocker cattle - buy weaned calves in fall
Feedlots - buy calves at about 1 year
Packers - buy finished calves for slaughter
Purebred producers

8. With segmented ownership
The cow/calf producer usually doesn't know
Ultimate productivity
Carcass quality
NRCS photo by Lynn Betts.

9. Shift to retained ownership
Since the 1990s, a gradual shift has taken place.
Packers began buying based on carcass.
Cow-calf producers investing in breeding stock more likely to maintain ownership through slaughter.

10. Geography plays a part Cow/calf producers
Most in Deep South, Great Plains and Mountain West
Usually full-time operations
Routinely over 200 cows
Requires land for forage

11. How much land is needed for each cow/calf pair?
Arid Western regions may need 60 acres
Wetter Eastern regions may need 2 acres
Land is more productive
Use of intensive rotational grazing
Southern climates
Pastures grow for more months
Less stored feed needed

12. Stocker feeders Concentrated in the Great Plains
May graze winter wheat through the winter
Once stockers are sold, wheat produced for harvest

13. Large-scale feedlots Most near packing plants
Texas, Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado
Typically hold tens of thousands of cattle

15. Eastern production Herds less than 30 Feedlots less than 1,000
Majority are culled dairy animals and dairy steers
Secondary income

16. Photo courtesy Dr. Robert E. Mikesell.
Carcass quality
Many packers buy based on carcass quality and/or lean:fat ratio
Bonuses for high quality and lean carcass
Discounts for low quality and fat carcass
Typical dressing percentage of a beef animal is 55-60%. That means a 1000 steer would yield a carcass weight of around 600lbs.
Photo courtesy Dr. Robert E. Mikesell.

17. Environmental issues ... Overgrazing can lead to erosion
Increased grazing fees for Bureau of Land Management public grazing land
Manure management and water pollution

18. Environmentally Friendly

19. Animal Welfare Issues

20. Advantages to Beef Compared to other animals
Forage is cheaper than feed.
Less labor requirements.
Low death loss.
Adapt well.
Good demand for producers, especially
small producers, because inexpensive.
Forages are the main food source for all cow-calf operators. Very little feed is fed by cow-calf oprerators. If they feed feed it is just in the winter to the cows or during a drought to the cows. The calves are only fed a creep feed for about 3 months on a limited basis.
Most all of the labor required is for maintenance of the ranch.
Is a most in order to insure good profits and cattle just don’t lose a lot of their offsping.
It is easy for producers to adapt to the market and to various ways of producing the cattle.
Great opportunity for people to be involved in agriculture because it is easier to produce cattle than other species and usually less expensive to operate.

21. Disadvantages
Through droughts, cost increases, due to no grass and feeding feed
Don’t convert grass as good as feed.
Fewer offspring per year, compared to other species.
High cost to start operation;
Land is expensive
Animals expensive $800cow vs. $90 ewe
You have to feed supplements during the harsh times of the year.
Cattle don’t convert grass to body weight as quickly as they do with feed. Thus it takes longer to get the product to the table than with other species.
Cows only have one offspring a year to sell verses more offspring with other species, however the more mouths you have to feed the more expensive it gets.
It does cost more to get started than with other species because you have to buy a lot of land which is expensive. However the land is more easly convert back to capital than with other species because you don’t have a lot of barns that can only be used for one purpose like with swine.

22. What is a Breed? a group of animals that have certain traits in common
color
size
body structure
place of origin
horned or polled

23. What is a Purebred?
animals of known ancestry where all parents etc. are of the same breed
Breed associations register purebred animals, develop markets for those animals, and organize breed shows

24. What is Crossbreeding?
mating animals of the same species, but different breeds
Angus mated to Hereford
crossbreed to achieve desired animal traits

25. Breeds to take note on in your notebooks!
Angus
Simmental
Gelbvieh
Limousine
Hereford
Polled Hereford
Charolias
Brahman
Texas Longhorn
Beefalo
Short Horn
Santa Gertrudis
Salers
Maine Anjou

26. What are the English Beef Breeds?
Hereford - Red & white, horned or polled
most popular in the U.S.
Angus - bred to compete with Hereford
smaller cows and calves
excellent conformation (body type)
mature lighter
resistant to pinkeye & cancer eye (due to black)
Shorthorn - dual purpose breed (meat/milk)

28. Hereford Origin- County of Hereford in England
Breeders selected for high yield and economical production
Henry Clay of Kentucky imported the first Herefords
Herefords are registered by American Hereford Association
More Herefords have been registered than cattle of any other breed.

30. Polled Hereford Origin- Iowa in 1901
Warren Gammon, an Iowa breeder contacted all Hereford association members.
Located 4 Bulls and 10 Cows

32. Angus Origin- Scotland in the shires of Aberdeen and Angus.
Earliest records of Angus date to the early 1700’s.
George Grant of Victoria, KS imported four bulls in 1873.
American Angus Association organized in 1883.

34. Brahman
Origin- from France
Hot & humid climates
Disease resistant

36. Charolais Origin- Charolles in Central France.
King Ranch in Texas imported first bulls into the United States.
- large & long body, fast growth
used to increase size of English breeds
increasing in popularity due to low marbling

38. Santa Gertrudis Origin- King Ranch. - 3/8 Brahman & 5/8 shorthorn.
1920 a bull named “Monkey” was born.
Monkey sired over a 150 useful sons.
All present day Santa Gertrudis cattle are descendents of Monkey the bull.
popular in southern U.S.
A sire is a father. Sired means to father.

40. Texas Longhorn Origin- Spanish Andalusian Cattle
Brought by Columbus on his 2nd voyage
1860 estimated 4 million running wild in Texas
Almost became extinct by 1900
Horns spread to 4 feet or more
Slow maturing and have high fertility
Resistant to disease and parasites

42. Shorthorn Origin- Around 1600, Tees River Valley of Northern England.
Originally called Durhams.
Coates Herdbook was est. in 1822 to record Shorthorns.
Was first cattle Herdbook and served as a model for other herdbooks that followed.
Originally Dual Purpose

44. Brangus Origin- USDA experiment station, Louisiana
3/8 Brahman & 5/8 Angus
Adaptable to different climates
Good mothering ability
Produce desirable carcasses

45. What are Exotics? animals not common to U.S.
used for increasing calf weights
importation laws restrict bringing exotics into the U.S.

47. Beefalo Origin- Canadian ministry of agriculture
Good mothering characteristics
Excellent foraging ability

49. Beefmaster Shorthorn Hereford Brahman Origin- Texas
Crossing was from three breeds under range conditions.
Shorthorn
Hereford
Brahman

50. Belgian Blue

51. Belted Galloway

52. Blonde d’Aquintaine

54. Chianina Origin- Italy One of the oldest breeds of cattle
Tallest breed of beef cattle
Short hair that is white to steel gray
Terminal breed
Low milk production

55. Devon

56. Dexter

57. Galloway

58. Gelbvieh

59. Gelbvieh Originated in Germany Red sometimes black in color
Noted for superior fertility and mothering ability
Tend to be extra fleshy under the throat

60. Highland

61. Limousin

63. Maine Anjou Originated in France Dark red with white markings or black
Developed by crossing the Mancelle breed with the Shorthorn breed

64. Murray Grey

65. Piedmontese

66. Pinzgaur

67. Salers

68. Salers Origin- France Fastest growing breed in the United States
Mahogany red to black in color
One of the last breeds to be imported into the United States

70. Simmental Originated in Switzerland
Oldest breed of cattle in the world
Large, powerful breed
Brought to the United States in 1971
Orange/Yellow and white to black in color

71. South Devon

72. Tarentaise

73. Beef Production Cow-Calf Production: own cows, sell weaner calves
Stocker: buy weaner calves, sell yearlings
Feedlot Finishing: buy calves, fatten, sell to slaughter house

74. Beef Production Cow-Calf: most common
- need range land – fed lots of roughages!
- calve in spring, sell calves in fall
- feed 2# roughages per 100# of cow weight in winter (extra for cold weather)

75. Lots of clean water & free choice salt
Supplement with needed proteins, minerals, vitamins.
Feed best hay to those that need it the most (pregnant, lactating, heifers)
Lots of clean water & free choice salt

76. Cow-Calf Operations How does it work? What type of cattle are used?
When is the calving season?
Producers role is to produce a calf to be used in the beef market. They can only produce one calf every 12 months. A Cow carries a calf for 9 months before it gives birth. Then she nurses it for another 6 months before it is weaned and sold. We can rebreed a cow 3 months after she has given birth that way she is carring her next calf while she is nursing one. This enables us to have a calf every 12 months.
We typical like our cows to contain at least 50% of a mother breed, the other part can be of a exotic breed. We then breed these cows to exotic type bull to produce calves with a high percentage of exotic so that they will grow and be well muscled, but still have some ability to get fat from the mother breed influence.
Calves are usually calved out in a season which would last for about 3 months. We typically will calve in the fall and spring but the summer months can also be used for calving. We try to avoid the winter months and year round calving.

77. What’s the Bull’s Job? How many cows can one bull breed each season?
How many bulls would you need if owned 200 cows?
What is another way to breed your cows?
One bull can breed approximately 30 cows.
7 bulls
However AI can be used. To be able to get more diverse genetics.

78. Heifers: What are these creatures?
When are heifers able to start breeding?
Gestation period of ~283 days (9 months)
Can a cow ever have twins?
Heifers need to be bred around months of age that way they will have there first calf at around 2 years of age.
Cows can have twins but not very likely.

79. Moo-cows get hungry too!
What do we feed beef cattle?
Mainly forages- grasses and legumes.
Grasses
Bermuda, Fescue
Legumes
Clovers, Alfalfa
Pasture free of weeds. Why?
It takes on average 6-9 lbs of feed to produce one pound of beef!
Grass is much cheaper to feed than feed. You do have to maintain the grass by fertilizing the grass several times a year. You also have to apply herbicides to kill the weeds so that you have good grass. Just like in your yard. You also have to think about planting some type of grass for them to eat during the winter, why?

80. Supplements Minerals Creep feeding Fed free choice What is it?
Minerals are feed to kept the animals healthy since they can’t get all they need from the grass.
Creep feed is a feed that is feed to the baby calves in order to help them grow faster and be heavier at weaning time, why?
The creep feed is fed somewhat on a limited basis, but not free choice. Why?
Because we want to limit our cost.

81. Where are we at in the process?
Calf is born.
Calf is weaned.
Where does it go next?

82. Backgrounding system
Cattle is fed high quality forages and maybe some grain for about a 4-6 month period.
This is done to increase size of your cattle, as cheaply as possible. Because again grass is cheaper than feed.
Here we are taking the weaned cattle and letting them graze grass for about 4-6 months. Usually if it is the summer they are grazing bermuda grass, sudan, or other types of warm season high quality grasses. If its winter then they are usually grazing wheat or oats.
We do this because we can put some cheap gain on the cattle . The only draw back is that it takes a long time, Why?
We usually only are trying to put about 200lbs on the cattle.

83. Feedlot Finishing Place calves in feedlot 500-700#
Feed high concentrates (grain) 2-4 months
Slaughter at #

84. Finishing system Cattle is fed to slaughter weight here.
-start at about 800lbs
-finished at lbs
-fed for about days
Commercial feedlots
MidWestern and Southwestern U.S.
Fed feed concentrates
-high energy- corn, milo, oats
We try to put on at least lbs of gain at this time. We want the cattle to put on muscle and fat. We hope that we can get the first 300lbs on rather quickly from compensatory gain from coming off the pastures. The last half of the weight is hard to put on, because we want them to stop growing and start fattening but some cattle are really hard to fatten.

85. Nowhere to go but,… Slaughter House
Finally, beef is sent to grociers to be consumed by us.

86. Review of Process Cow calf operator- conception to weaning, 15 months.
Backgrounder- raises weaned calves until they are ready to go to feedlot months
Feedlot- fattens cattle to slaughter weight, usually 5-6 months.
Slaughter House to Grocery store to Table.

87. Process Review Cont. Total time require to get beef to the consumer.
From the first thought of the next calf crop to the table, right at or just over 2 years.
From the birth of a calf to the table, right at months.

88. Review What is a cow-calf operation? What do we feed?
Where are the beef cattle finished off?

89. Beef Terminology A mature male is called a: Bull
A mature female is called a: Cow
The act of giving birth is called: Calving
Gestation: 283 Days
Castrated male is called a: Steer
An Immature Female is called a: Heifer

90. There are eight wholesale cuts that are then used to make retail cuts.

91. Beef, it’s what’s for dinner.