In today’s Beef Buzz, senior farm and ranch broadcaster Ron Hays features comments from Tom Fanning, general manager of Pratt Feeders, who recently discussed regenerative agriculture and its connection to the cattle industry on the Angus at Work podcast. Fanning focused specifically on how regenerative agriculture applies at the feedlot level, explaining how cattle feeders can improve the natural resources they depend on while maintaining an economically viable production system.
A Four-Legged Approach to Regenerative Agriculture
Fanning says regenerative agriculture in the beef industry is about improving the natural resources producers depend on while maintaining economic viability. “To me, regenerative ag in farming and ranching is focused on restoring and improving natural resources,” Fanning says. “Production depends upon our soil, our water, our biodiversity, our ecosystem, making sure those things function while remaining economically viable.”
At the feedlot level, Fanning sees four key areas where cattle feeders can make an impact: manure, water, animal performance, and data and technology. “The manure that we create every day is a resource that goes back onto the farm grounds that we’re then pulling the crops back off of to use back into the feed yard,” he says.
Fanning also emphasizes water efficiency and the importance of maintaining clean water for cattle performance. “Clean water is one of the most important factors to having a strong performance in animals in their gain,” he says. “But we need to preserve those water aquifers and the resources that we have.”
Manure Creates a Closed Loop
Cattle produce manure every day, and Fanning says feedlots can put that resource back to work on farms.
At Pratt Feeders, some lagoon water and dry manure are applied to farm ground, while much of the manure is used by surrounding farmers as a fertilizer substitute. “It provides a lot of nutrients back into the soil, and then we’re able to then be a market for them to sell their products back to us once they produce those off that farm,” Fanning says.
He describes the process as a “closed loop,” with manure returning nutrients to the soil and crops eventually making their way back into the cattle feeding system. Fanning also says the operation has several composting facilities where manure is composted before being returned to farms.
Healthier Cattle Can Improve Efficiency
Fanning says animal health and performance are another important piece of regenerative agriculture because more efficient cattle require fewer resources per pound of gain. “Healthier cattle equals better feed efficiency and lower morbidity or lower pulls is lower resource use per pound of gain,” he says.
Technology is also giving feedlot managers new ways to monitor individual animals. Fanning says Pratt Feeders is testing several technologies that collect data on animal movement and activity throughout the day.
The goal is to identify potential health problems earlier and allow employees to intervene with individual animals. “We’re really not trying to replace people with data,” Fanning says. “We’re just trying to let data talk to our professionals and help them make better judgments than with more information.”
He says that could mean having a list early each morning identifying specific pens where cattle need to be checked.
Genetics and Individual Animal Management
Fanning says cattle arriving at today’s feedyards are the result of years of decisions made throughout the beef production system. “Having the right animals that fit the right environments, and you know the proper genetics, and you know all of those decisions that are being made downstream of the feed yard by your seed stock producers and your commercial cow calf operators,” he says.
Fanning says feedlots benefit from those decisions and then work to get the best possible outcome from each individual animal. “Our job is then to take those animals and to get the optimum outcome for each animal there—not the pen, but the individual animal,” he says.
That focus has led to greater use of DNA testing and sorting programs, which Fanning says help feeders better understand what individual cattle are capable of achieving. “We’re trying to strive for individual animal management and the marketing and hitting that individual animal’s endpoint,” he says.
Larger Cattle Are Showing Their Potential
Fanning says cattle genetics and improved management have changed the way feeders think about optimal marketing weights. “In the past, we didn’t allow the animals to get to their optimum endpoint,” he says. “We sold them when we thought they were ready.”
He says that has changed significantly over the past four to five years as producers have seen cattle continue to gain and convert efficiently at heavier weights. “The genetics and the ability of those animals to gain and convert efficiently at much bigger weights is just—it’s just been proven out over and over and over,” Fanning says.
Fanning’s full conversation on regenerative agriculture and the cattle industry can be heard on the Angus at Work podcast.
The Beef Buzz is a regular feature heard on radio stations around the region on the Radio Oklahoma Ag Network and is a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR above for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
