Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays talked with Jimmy Taylor, Western Oklahoma rancher and Angus University’s Herd Rebuilding track panelist at the American Angus Convention.
His herd began with commercial cattle, changed to purebreds, and then to show cattle, but in 2005, he decided to aim for premiums on every animal he sold. After much research, selling carcass cattle on the grid was where he settled.
In yesterday’s BeefBuzz, Taylor detailed how, through much time, effort and expense, he achieved 82% prime ratings in his cattle to earn premium bonuses when he sells them. However, the USDA, currently led by Tom Vilsack, wants to remove premium bonuses, citing unfairness to other producers and consumers.
The passage of such a rule would be devastating to not only Taylor and other producers like him but also to the entire beef industry. He said, “The industry has worked really hard to develop quality cattle so they would lose. The system that is in place now with the AMAs incentivizes quality, if we go back the other way, it incentivizes pounds. The biggest loser would be the consumer because when you are incentivizing quality, that consumer is consistently getting a better eating experience all the time. The more pleased they are with the product they eat, the more beef they want to order.”
Taylor’s road to quality came quickly when Zoetis released its genomics test and he quickly made full use of it and timed artificial insemination. “As time went on, I got all of the low-hanging fruit and things have slowed down,” he said. “To the point that last year, I decided to stop using A.I. and moved to identifying the traits of the bulls I had. When I go buy a bull, milk is a trait that is limited in my area. My environment won’t support high milkers. Now that I’ve identified my females that are low in milk, I can buy a bull that has a high EPD for milk and it is tremendous everywhere else. Before, I couldn’t.”
He also groups his fatter cows to breed to leaner bulls and breeds his leaner cows to bulls with higher fat production. “That way of doing things would fit more commercial operations better than the timed A.I.,” he said. “I know a few commercial producers that do it, but probably more just turn the bulls out.” 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 for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
