Beef producers can only prosper if they can cut costs while improving their herd performance. Prices for their meat vary greatly, and greater efficiency in production means survival in bad markets. Beef cattle genetics, which study heredity and trait transfer from parent to off-spring, can help when producers combine them with practical measures.
Genetics analyze the way heredity works and the pros and cons of manipulation of any breed. For instance, breeding within a gene pool (a breed) can maximize desirable characteristics. Ranchers are always looking for faster growth, faster weight gain, and lower feed requirements for fattening steers. However, line-breeding can cause problems like infertility, lowered resistance to disease and environmental stress, and calves that fail to thrive.
Another modern practice is embryo transfer, when the fertilized eggs of a superior cow are implanted in cows of inferior breeding but which will make good mothers. The surrogates nurture the direct descendants of the donor cow. This can benefit those who produce breeding stock, but meat producers don't find this practice worth the expense and effort involved.
Many producers raise their herds in more or less natural conditions that can be harsh, like the open plains of the American west. For them, strong animals take precedence over those with a few good traits. They still find herd culling - removing unproductive cows - a valuable process. They look to genetic records to choose bulls who pass along fertility, viability, and longevity, as well as good growth and meat production.
Understanding the way heredity works is important in herd management. Animals with similar gene pools can often maximize certain characteristics in their off-spring, like fast weight gain or superior carcass quality. This is 'line' or 'in' breeding, in which two animals with common ancestors are mated. Although the practice can achieve certain goals, it also can weaken the over-all health and vitality of successive generations. For better results in fertility, calf survival, and long productive life, out-breeding is used, which mates animals of one breed but in no way related.
Cross-breeding, or mating a male and a female of two different breeds, works even better. The good traits of each breed are transferred with marked success, with the off-spring often being better than either parent. Careful matching of breed characteristics has produced some fine types of cross-breds with hybrid vigor and resilience.
Artificial insemination, using frozen semen, makes the best bulls available to ranchers everywhere. There are bulls with great performance records for meat production, and others whose strength is producing cows who conceive easily, carry calves successfully, and nurture them well. Things like birth weight, growth rate, and early maturity are all found in genetic records kept by breed associations.
Good herd management practices and making use of genetic records can be key to prosperity. Ranchers put a lot of money and effort into each animal, and they need every advantage to succeed.
Genetics analyze the way heredity works and the pros and cons of manipulation of any breed. For instance, breeding within a gene pool (a breed) can maximize desirable characteristics. Ranchers are always looking for faster growth, faster weight gain, and lower feed requirements for fattening steers. However, line-breeding can cause problems like infertility, lowered resistance to disease and environmental stress, and calves that fail to thrive.
Another modern practice is embryo transfer, when the fertilized eggs of a superior cow are implanted in cows of inferior breeding but which will make good mothers. The surrogates nurture the direct descendants of the donor cow. This can benefit those who produce breeding stock, but meat producers don't find this practice worth the expense and effort involved.
Many producers raise their herds in more or less natural conditions that can be harsh, like the open plains of the American west. For them, strong animals take precedence over those with a few good traits. They still find herd culling - removing unproductive cows - a valuable process. They look to genetic records to choose bulls who pass along fertility, viability, and longevity, as well as good growth and meat production.
Understanding the way heredity works is important in herd management. Animals with similar gene pools can often maximize certain characteristics in their off-spring, like fast weight gain or superior carcass quality. This is 'line' or 'in' breeding, in which two animals with common ancestors are mated. Although the practice can achieve certain goals, it also can weaken the over-all health and vitality of successive generations. For better results in fertility, calf survival, and long productive life, out-breeding is used, which mates animals of one breed but in no way related.
Cross-breeding, or mating a male and a female of two different breeds, works even better. The good traits of each breed are transferred with marked success, with the off-spring often being better than either parent. Careful matching of breed characteristics has produced some fine types of cross-breds with hybrid vigor and resilience.
Artificial insemination, using frozen semen, makes the best bulls available to ranchers everywhere. There are bulls with great performance records for meat production, and others whose strength is producing cows who conceive easily, carry calves successfully, and nurture them well. Things like birth weight, growth rate, and early maturity are all found in genetic records kept by breed associations.
Good herd management practices and making use of genetic records can be key to prosperity. Ranchers put a lot of money and effort into each animal, and they need every advantage to succeed.
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