A Holstein bull by the name of Potter recently joined a small but elite group of dairy sires that have produced and sold over one million units of semen. This elite group of  bulls  could be titled the “Bulls of the Century.” Their genes roam herds around the globe.  Some estimate a million unit bull would have more than 150,000 daughters and 2.3 million granddaughters and would be  responsible for 15% of the DNA in today’s U.S. dairy cows.

The U.S. beef industry maintains a wide variation in their genetic pool with several breeds of cattle being utilized.  Grass is harvested by our four-legged employees from the arid rangelands of the west to the lush grasslands of the east and the hot, humid areas of the south. Conversely, most of the nation’s dairy cows are confinement fed.  Meals are delivered to them in a balanced total mixed ration. For  this reason  the dairy industry can single trait select and maintain a tight genetic base. The beef industry will never have the tight genetic base that is seen in the dairy industry.  In order to maintain reproductive success with limited feed resources beef cows in arid climates are generally  smaller framed, lower in milk production, and hardy.  Missed income opportunity would result if this type of cow was used on more lush  grasslands where perhaps a larger framed, higher milking cow could be reproductively successful .

Many feedlot operators prefer to feed Holstein steers over beef breeds because of the tight genetic makeup of the breed.  They know what to expect for feed conversions, average daily gain, days on feed, breakeven, percent choice, yield grades, etc.  Holstein steers perform at a lower level than beef animals but they are consistent.  The lower performance is factored into the purchase price with confidence and accuracy.  Because of this predictability, fewer pens of fat Holstein steers close out in the red than with pens of beef cattle.  Beef steers are all over the board in performance primarily due to genetic makeup even within a breed.  Unpredictable best sums it up for beef cattle.

 Five to seven percent of the nation’s beef herds are bred artificially.  Many of these artificially bred cows are registered seed stock with the bull offspring going to the commercial cattleman.  Over 90% of dairy cattle are artificially inseminated with their female offspring going into commercial production. The bulls used for A.I. are selected primarily for the single trait of milk production and mammary system structure to support added milk production.  Dairy cows remain in production fewer years than beef cows. Generations are turned over faster accelerating genetic improvement.  This is the difference in the tremendous progress the dairy cow has made in their single trait of milk versus the slow progress the beef cow has made in multiple and low heritability traits. Just as the dairy industry is producing more milk with fewer cows the beef industry is producing more pounds of beef with fewer brood cows. These similarities can be attributed to improved genetics and management practices.

Don Trimmer, director of beef programs for Accelerated Genetics,  agrees with the wide variability of beef cattle compared to the dairy industry.  He points out that the number of beef breeds that are making an impact are substantially lower than there were ten years ago. The American Angus Association registers more cattle than all other breeds combined. The dominance of Angus genetics in the commercial cowherd has helped to reduce some of the variation in the nation’s beef cowherd, though it may be more from a phenotypic standpoint.  In many areas of the country, the “rainbow” herds of the past can’t be found.  The majority are solid black or red cows with some baldies. If you look at the data of most widely used breeds, it continues to show 60-70% Angus or Angus cross bulls.  The volume of semen sold on beef bulls like EXT, New Design 036, Traveler and Focus have had a huge impact on the genetics of the commercial cowherd.

Experts agree that the dairy industry may be on the verge of being inbred yet  point out that the dairy industry may hold the key to decoding the bovine genome.  Million unit bulls such as Potter  are genetic landslides for this decoding process because they appear in so many pedigrees.   Their family tree serves as a guide and base in identifying the most important genes, an ultimate reference point for DNA technology.

Beef cattle genetic advancement in the area of uniformity and predictability has and will continue to move at a slower pace than what the dairy industry has been able to accomplish.  This should not discourage the beef industry from working toward the goal of producing uniform and predictable cattle.  This  can be achieved by incorporating quality registered bulls into breeding programs and by using, when applicable,  technology such as artificial insemination selecting high accuracy EPD bulls for multiple traits.

That’s enough for this month.  As always, if you would like to discuss this article or simply want to talk cows, do not hesitate to contact me at 775-385-7665 or rtbulls@frontier.com.