By Trinity S. Smith
Livestock production is a major industry in Texas alone, being one of the largest producers of beef in particular. Everything is bigger in Texas, it’s a statement we’ve all heard at least once or twice in our lives. But is bigger always better? Let’s find out, shall we?
Livestock production is both a delicate piece of business and a science that are often seriously overlooked, animals have requirements to be able to grow and thrive to their fullest potential. It isn’t simply buying a trailer of 30 cows and calves and hauling them out to a pasture and leaving them to fend for themselves.
No, management is needed and when dealing with animals there are many variables to consider when developing a breeding program, but four basic categories come out on top, genetics, nutritional requirements, market, land availability. People need realize breeding systems are not a “one size fits all.”
Genetics is one of the first considerations to make when selecting breeding stock because if the stock you select has inferior genetics than no matter what your operation is doomed for fail from the start. In the cattle world pedigree and ancestry are taken very serious and should not be overlooked. Most are aware that different genetic lines of livestock are superior to other, black coated cattle for instead are less heat tolerant than their red counterparts such as angus cattle.
Brahman cattle for instances, have exceptional growth rates, as well as exhibiting signs of disease and insect resistance, therefore cutting costs on vet bills, however, they lack marbling scores on their carcasses lowering their meat grades. A wise decision would be to cross them with a breed that will marble the meat better such as an angus or Hereford. Assessing what the genetic needs of your stock are is an essential aspect of livestock breeding management.
Nutrition is not to be handled lightly either, in fact nutrition might be more important than genetics. You can have the best superior line of genetic stock but if you cannot meet that animal’s nutritional requirements than it will never meet its full potential. Farmers rightfully are always looking for ways to cut their costs and one of the biggest, not the biggest, but one of is feed costs. Many farmers elect to build grain feeds or cubes, and of course either hay or alfalfa for their cattle, maybe they also raise goats and provide them with hay and grain as well or sheep, all of which are grazing species – ruminants.
Forage production is a great way for farmers to cut feed costs if they utilize their pastures to produce forage which can be a variety of plant species such as clover, vetch, turnips, wheat, barley, etc. The goal should be to use forage that is high quality and energy yielding. The energy requirements for different species on livestock is going to be different, the requirements for dairy cattle to produce milk is going to be significantly different for beef cattle to put on muscle for beef. Milk goats are going to be different from meat goats, wool sheep are going to be different from meat sheep. A farmer needs to be mindful of what the intended purpose of their chosen livestock species is and plan out nutrition plans accordingly to make sure that feed conversion ratios are met.
The next consideration is the market, a producer’s goal is to produce a product that is going to produce profit, whether that means financial return or in terms of meat in the freezer, or high volumes of milk and cheese produced. Consumers of those products drive producers in the directions of production. In the beef cattle industry Angus, Hereford, Brahman, and Charolais, are the four most popular beef breeds and then there are their crosses such as Brangus, Brafords, Charbrays, Black Baldys, Beefmasters, etc. Some markets wrongfully select for features rather than carcasses such as coat color, or ear and face length, anyone can agree black Angus cattle typically fetch more per pound than most other breeds.
On the other hand, Angus cattle realistically do not always have superior carcasses. A producer needs to be aware of trends in market valuable of their chosen livestock endeavors, selecting for livestock that have the genetic traits they need, while being able to meet nutritional requirements, and being able to sell at the market.
We neatly are brought to the final consideration – land availability. The amount of land a farm has access to will be a heavy weighing factor because it will determine what kind of livestock a farmer can raise, how many of that species they can raise, and what their expected yield from those animals can be. It will also determine if the farmer can grow forage to feed to the livestock to help reduce feed costs as well. Land is often a very limited resource for livestock producers, and many have to rent land to put their livestock on because in order to be profitable they have to raise great numbers of livestock, simply having ten cows having calves is not going to be profitable and you cannot put one hundred plus cows on ten acres, so farmers often find pastures not used by landowners to graze their cattle on until they take them to the auction. The amount of land is also important for a producer to raise forage to meet animal nutritional requirements, cattle for instances take seven pounds of feed for every one pound of growth, that means they will require a lot of feed, and that’s expensive circling back to the importance of forage production and grazing.
To conclude livestock breeding and production is a science with many variables that reinforce the notion that livestock breeding systems are not a one size fits all dynamic. Genetics, nutrition, marketing trends, available land are four of the controllable variables a producer can manipulate to influence the outcome of their operations. Find what works for you and your operation and adjust accordingly, it’s not a one size fits all.
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