Welcome to the fall
sale season! The entire
GENETRUST team looks
forward to visiting with
you concerning this
power packed offering of
registered females, bulls,
and commercial females. We
are excited about the cattle
business and always appreciate the insight and perception
we glean from visiting with our customer base as to what
the future demands and challenges that they anticipate.
As Cody stated in his newsletter write up it has been an
exhilarating roller coaster ride and it is anyone’s guess
as to what the future holds. The early bull sales on the
west coast have been positive and the top end of the
commercial female market has been solid. Undoubtedly
the good ones are still in demand and without question
data and information is still a driving force behind the
value buyers attach to the genetics they purchase.
Change and the need to set a new course and redirect
what we have traditionally done needs much thought
and research before application; however, I think as
an industry we are a little complacent in adapting new
technology and methods of measuring progress. The
positives about this industry is that current estimates
have the population of the world at 9.6 billion by 2050. I
firmly believe that beef will be an integral part of feeding
that population; however, we have to become smarter
and more efficient in our production to stay competitive.
The old saying is you cannot evaluate what you cannot
measure. As I heard someone state the other day. Where
would Wal Mart be without a scale, scanner and cash
register?
As the article on crossbreeding indicates we are advocates
of crossbreeding and what this industry can gain from
its calculated use. Breed complementarity is the art of
combining breeds with differing strengths. The Bos
Indicus influence we deliver in the bulls and females we
sell supercharges the effects of heterosis by producing
more heterozygosity than a typical English by English
program. Angus is the dominant breed of female in the
industry today. What better genetic influence could you
add to that population than the infusion of Brangus
genetics to obtain more heat tolerance, environmental
adaptability, longevity while still producing offspring
that will be capable of hanging a carcass that excels
for quality grade and meets the specs for quality grid
based programs? As Dr. Weaber stated by increasing
weaning weight by up to 23% we could add as much as
an additional $200 per calf at weaning. Numbers that
are about impossible to replicate from a source verified
tagging systems or carcass premiums.
The way to make crossbreeding even more valuable is
with the use of bulls with proven data and information
to base your selection criteria on. A recent survey we
conducted though left me somewhat concerned as it
appears that too high of a percentage of our customer
base are still using actual weights and measurements as
their primary focus in evaluating their future genetic
choices. We need to remember again that these can be
helpful but are not the most productive ways of making
genetic decisions. Especially when you consider that
our sale offerings contain bulls raised under differing
environmental challenges that make these actual
and adjusted measurements incomparable. These
measurements provide the most usefulness in the
animal’s evaluation when they are incorporated into well-
defined contemporary groups. We strive to continually
improve on our contemporary groupings and enhance
them by using proven and unproven sire lines within
them to improve their reliability. Furthermore, over
the past year we have embarked on a program of 100%
sire verification, and are aggressively cataloging DNA
and parentage tests on our entire cow herds. This along
with the DNA evaluation of our sale offering to produce
eventually 100% of our animals with GE – Enhanced
