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Traits That Pay
1/12/2007
By Eric Grant
Black
and polled are two characteristics that drive the seedstock business,
according to a recent study of traits and their specific impacts on
Limousin bull prices.
Limousin breeders who balance those two traits with high growth,
sensible birth weight, and calving ease and good carcass quality stand
to gain competitive advantages over competitors.
“Results show that multiple-trait selection, A.I., data
collection and registration pay,” says Kent Andersen,
executive vice president of North American Limousin Foundation (NALF).
The study looked at the traits and their specific impacts on value.
“It’s clear that if you’ve got cattle
that do a lot of things well, they’ll bring more dollars in
the marketplace,” Andersen says.
Conducted by Colorado State University for NALF, the study
evaluated prices paid for 2,500 Limousin and LimFlex (Limousin-Angus or
Red Angus) bulls sold at auction and through private-treaty sales in
2005 and 2006.
Double polled, (both parents polled) bulls brought $402 more, and
DNA-tested homozygous polled bulls brought $1,733 more per head than
their horned counterparts. (A word of caution: Just 3% of the
sample consisted of DNA-tested homozygous bulls; so the magnitude of
the value may be skewed.)
Charlie Hunt, who has raised Limousin cattle near Oxford, Neb., for
three decades, says 80% of his customers demand polled bulls.
Blacker
is better. Bulls that DNA-tested homozygous black earned
$843 more per head than their red counterparts. On the flip side,
Andersen adds, there are cost- reducing opportunities to going with red
bulls, especially if you retain ownership and sell on carcass weight.
Bulls with the highest yearling weight and weaning weight expected
progeny differences (EPDs) brought $816 and $685 more per head
respectively than bulls in the lowest categories for these traits.
“Bull buyers still know that pounds pay, whether
it’s at weaning or at yearling,” says Colorado
State’s Tom Field. “Pounds still drive value more
than carcass traits like quality or yield grade.”
Del Ficke, a hybrid cattle producer near Pleasant Dale, Neb., says,
“Our customers want bulls with light birth weights but heavy
weaning and/or yearling weights. My buyers want the most bang for the
buck; they want to have their cake and eat it, too.”
Bulls with the highest EPDs for ribeye area were $674 more valuable
than bulls in the lowest range of the trait.
Bulls sired by more proven AI sires brought $402 more per head than
bulls sired by typically less proven natural service sires. The study
proves that synchronization and AI—which usually costs less
than $50 per calf—is one of the most effective investments
seedstock producers can make, Andersen says. “Producing
bulls—and lots of them of like age—that are sired
by genetically superior and proven AI sires really, really
pays,” he says.
Bulls produced via embryo transplant (E.T.) were worth $472 more per
head than bulls sired by natural service, but garnered only marginally
higher prices than AI-sired bulls, and with appreciably higher
production cost. While only $72 a head in added value as compared to
AI-sired bulls is good, breeders may want to reconsider if they are
flushing their best cows and determine how best to market these bulls
to justify their investment in E.T., Andersen says.
Bulls with the highest EPD for milk brought $413 more per head than
bulls in the lowest category. Producers with expensive or limited feed
resources should exercise caution for selecting for too much milk,
Andersen says.
Registered bulls brought $438 more per head than unregistered bulls.
“This is a time-held principle that if you register your
cattle and document their pedigree and performance, they’ll
be worth more,” Andersen says.
This should also be a red flag for composite breeders, adds Frank
Padilla, NALF’s membership director.
Precious papers.
“I was surprised that registering your cattle equated to so
much more value,” says Padilla, who raised composite
seedstock in Nebraska for 30 years. “In order for them to
grow a market, I think it’s going to be important for
composite breeders to tie in with an organization that will allow them
to document pedigrees and other production data, and validate the
standing of their cattle.”
Ultrasound-scanned bulls brought $348 more per head—no matter
what the results were.
“Even if the data weren’t great, buyers apparently
still gave credit for just doing the scans,” Andersen says.
“It is absolutely worth the investment.”
Bulls with good docility EPDs brought $340 more per head than bulls
with poor docility EPDs. Virtually all breeds have paid a steep price
in the marketplace for marketing bad-dispositioned cattle over the
years. It’s clear that the market remains sensitive to it,
Padilla says.
Bulls in the highest range for scrotal circumference EPDs claimed $325
more per head than bulls in the lowest range.
Bulls with actual and adjusted birth weights of less than 100 lb. were
valued at $261 more per head than bulls with 100 lb. or greater birth
weights.
“The surprising thing to me is that buyers somewhat
mistakenly paid more attention to the actual birth weights than they
did to the birth weight EPDs,” Padilla says.
“However, bulls in the highest category for calving ease EPD
brought $209 more per head than bulls in the least-friendly calving
ease group, indicating buyers were wisely paying attention to this
genetic prediction.”
Bulls with high marbling EPDs brought $177 more than bulls with low
marbling scores. In addition, bulls with favorable yield grade EPDs
were worth $173 more per head than bulls that had unfavorable yield
grade EPDs.
So why did marbling and yield grade—two key carcass
traits—rank below growth, color and polled? Field cautions
that results of this study are based on sales of one breed—a
muscle breed—so buyers may not be looking as much for traits
like marbling.
Plus, the study shows that the market is “still driven by
weight,” Field adds. “So, while we talk about
quality and yield as important aspects of our pricing systems, [the
cattle] industry still is not very good at communicating value of these
traits.”
It’s also important not to take results of the single-breed
analysis out of context.
“At least in the Limousin business, our buyers have wanted
muscle and growth to pump up yield grade in their programs,”
Padilla says. “They’re not necessarily looking to
us for marbling. But the development of the LimFlex hybrid has
accelerated our ability to produce higher-marbling seedstock.”
Practical application.
So what’s the relevance of the study to other breeds?
“I think it shows that breeds need to do a better job of
identifying their roles within the industry and capitalizing on those
roles to secure their market share,” Padilla says.
“Most breeds at one time used to claim they could do it all.
If some of these breeds had done a better job of identifying their
roles, they probably wouldn’t have lost as much market share
over the last 10 years.” n
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