Lee Leachman is the CEO of Leachman Cattle, based just North of Cheyenne, Wyoming, but with land in Colorado as well. Leachman Cattle markets over 2,000 bulls annually and is currently one of the five largest seedstock breeders in the US. Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to interview Mr. Leachman during the recent Hemphill County Beef Conference, and they covered many topics, including how technology is improving the cattle industry.
Leachman feels blessed to be a third-generation seedstock producer currently raising Black and Red Angus, Charolais, and Stabilizer Composites. The operation is a member of the URUS Group, which encompasses Alta Genetics, GENEX, and Trans Ova.
“We are all about the cow, about making better cows for our customers,” he said. “For us, that involves better beef cows, and we also sell a lot of semen into dairies, now, to make beef on dairy crosses.”
The two men discussed how quickly technology in the cattle industry is growing, and Leachman pointed out how much better computers and artificial intelligence are at processing large amounts of data, such as a quick web search versus flipping through the yellow pages of a phone book.
“It’s going to really help us in two major areas,” he said of computerized technology. “We have too much data; it’s going to help us do better at analyzing it, and it’s going to help us save some labor.”
He recounted milking robots and automated feeding machines in dairies. “It’s not going to be long before these feed lots are using automated feed trucks to deliver feed,” he said. “I think we are going to use cameras to detect sickness. We are going to use artificial intelligence anytime we are looking at massive amounts of data. For me, that is usually involved in a breeding decision.”
AI can easily sift through EPD data of various bulls and cows to determine which crosses will produce the most profitable offspring. Such technologies have already aided in improving yield grade, but such progress comes with some disadvantages.
“We are making cattle bigger and heavier and fatter, and that is great because the meat marbles more and is super flavorful – that’s why people love beef, but we’ve probably gone a little too far without measuring the muscle yield,” Leachman explained.
He believes that it is possible to maintain marbling while adding muscle yield through the use of genomics.
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.
