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JENSEN BROS. ANNUAL BULL SALE
How low is too lowwhen selecting low birth weight bulls?
Gayle Smith - Cattle Business Weekly
An interesting question came up when a panel of seedstock producers
took the stage during an open house at the University of Nebraska
Gudmundsen Research facility in Whitman, Neb. A producer from the
audience wanted to know if he selects bulls for lower birth weights, is he
short-changing himself?
There has been a lot of buzz around the industry lately about how low
is too low when selecting bulls for birth weight. No one wants to pull
a calf, but is there a point where selecting a bull for too low of a birth
weight is going too extreme?
The panelists seem to think so. Jerry Connealy of Connealy Angus
in Whitman, Neb., reminds producers that birth weight and yearling
weight are highly correlated traits. “When generations upon generations
spread bulls with heavy birth weight or light birth weight stacked
upon each other, we have defeated those antagonisms,” he says. “That
correlation is still real, and its still there. In the Angus breed, we have
conquered a lot of that. I wouldn’t recommend to anyone stacking light
birth weight on top of light birth weight. Piling negative upon negative,
you will eventually get a finer boned, frailer calf that will be a less rugged
animal in the end,” he added.
Loren Berger of Berger’s Herdmasters in North Platte says producers
should select bulls for birth weight based on what their end point is for
their cattle. “I visited several feedlots who wanted to feed my cattle, and
they all told me they want to take the Continental cross cattle to 1,450 to
1,500 pounds,” he says. “Most 65 pound birth weight calves will struggle
to get to that, and still have an acceptable yield grade.”
Berger sees producers who are concerned about birth weight making
some adjustments in their herd. “I think those producers need to
separate the cows from the heifers. A cow can give birth to a heavier calf,
and have the calf get up and nurse right away, and do all this in a harsh
environment. If these cows are limited to giving birth to a 65 pound calf,
in my mind, that calf is a loss. I think 85-90 pounds may be more ideal
in most situations,” he explains. “I feel most producers are making a big
sacrifice if they take low birth weight to the extreme in the mature cows.”
Connealy says too light a calf can also have more health issues. “There
is certainly some buzz out there that short gestation calves have less
developed lungs, causing us to see more sickness and other negative
ramifications,” he says.
“In this industry, we are guilty of being plungers. We can’t moderate,”
Connealy continues. “We think if a lighter calf is good, then an even
lighter one is better. We have to stop somewhere. I think we are pushing
that more than we need to. A cow can have a calf that weights 85-90
pounds, and we can still use the natural correlation between birth weight
and yearling weight to our advantage. Heifer bulls need to be used as
heifer bulls, even if we don’t like to pull calves,” he states.
Despite a trend toward lighter birth weight calves, the panelists still see
cow size continuing to climb. “I see cow size continuing to increase as
an industry,” Connealy says. “In the Angus industry, and particularly in
our own business, we are struggling to hold cow size, and even decrease
it from what it was in the 80s, when we were selecting those taller frame
bulls,” he explains.
As an industry, these panelists see cow size continuing to increase unless
there is a joint effort to select replacement heifers that aren’t on top or
even at the higher middle end for size. “We need to select the smaller
heifers,” Connealy says. “It is easy to say, but when you are standing out
there selecting your replacements, it is very hard to do.”
Panel moderator, Matt Spangler, points out conversations he has had
with ranchers looking to decrease the size of their cows. “A lot of the
time, I talk to the rancher who wants to moderate his cowherd, and walk
him through what he needs to buy for a bull. Then, at load out, I see
him loading up the highest growth, heaviest muscled bull on the sale.
The problem is in part what these guys put on offer, but it is also having
the discipline to go to the sale and say ‘I may buy the bull that is below
the breed average for milk, or above the breed average for birth weight,
because I plan to use him for my cows’.”
“In the end, the key is having the discipline to buy what you truly need,”
Spangler tells the audience. “That is what will have the most tremendous
impact on where we go from here with cow size.”
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