Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, had the chance to speak with the operator of the Ashland Veterinary Center, Dr. Randall Spare, at the recent Hemphill County Beef Conference in Canadian, Texas. In Tuesday’s BeefBuzz, they discussed the importance of maintaining a high-quality product for beef consumers. Today, in line with Dr. Randall’s presentation at the event titled “The Value of Artificial Insemination to a Commercial Cowherd,” they are discussing factors to consider when choosing a bull.
According to Dr. Spare, the right bull depends on the environment in which he and his calves will live. He said that a producer must consider his or her goals, how the cattle will be marketed and to whom, and what their purpose is.
“The right bull is the one that meets their needs to meet their goals,” he summarized. “My job, then, is to move their goals to something that they can create more value with.”
He emphasized the benefits of genomic testing on the cowherd to better understand their needs for choosing the right bull. “If we understand that genomic testing is involved in seedstock production, and those seedstock producers can genomically test and enhance their EPDs, why can’t we do that with commercial cattle? We can.”
Genomic testing can identify the top third of a cow herd or the bottom third, allowing a commercial producer to market the bottom end differently than the top end of the herd, or to eliminate the bottom end and increase the top end.
“There is a sentiment in production agriculture today, ‘Well, we’ve got enough choice cattle, and we don’t need any more marbling,’” Dr. Spare pointed out. “I would challenge producers who think that .65 percent marbling is good enough for CAB, when 2.5 is available. We can have marbling EPDs as high as 2.5 percent. One of the highest bulls in the Angus breed is a 2.7. If we can do that and be in the top one percent, why can’t we move it there? We have to be pioneers in this business.”
He highlighted how refusing to get the most out of one’s cattle reduces their value. He added, “It’s just like feeding $8 corn to our cattle. If they’re not efficient, and they’re not gaining four pounds per day, and they are not converting, we are making our corn worth less. The same thing with our grass. We’ve got to produce the best cattle to get the most value out of our forage.”
He expressed excitement about the number of young people attending the Hemphill County Beef Conference and emphasized the opportunity they present to bolster the trajectory of using genomic testing in commercial herds to produce the best cattle possible.
“It’s kind of like a mutual fund,” he said. “If we can make those things more valuable early on, they are really going to have something to sell, but they may have to be willing to do it a little differently than their father or grandfather.”
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 at the top of the story for today’s show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
