Bushy Park catalogue

[Joe Boy]

How many of you got a catalogue from Bushy Park?

I would love someone to take the time to explain "Gene-Star" testing and what should a person look for:
1.  For Breeding Show cattle.
2.  For Market Show steers.
3.  For the ranch and feed lot industry.

I am 65 years old and believe that such testing will open the gates to more efficient money making cattle production for feed lots and ranchers.

 

[knabe]

How many of you got a catalogue from Bushy Park?

I would love someone to take the time to explain "Gene-Star" testing and what should a person look for:
1.  For Breeding Show cattle. when they start putting stars on animals in the ring is when you need to worry.  right now it's who's on the halter.
2.  For Market Show steers.  when they start putting stars.......
3.  For the ranch and feed lot industry.  when they start paying you for them......

I am 65 years old and believe that such testing will open the gates to more efficient money making cattle production for feed lots and ranchers.

belief means nothing.  if you had a 6 star tenderness animal, would you have it tested for tenderness or continue to believe?  there are not gates to making money.  if anything, it will be a new docking system if you don't have the stars.  i haven't seen any large data sets on 6 star tenderness cattle that independently verify the markers.  it is a system based on trust which you pointed out.  most of the tests are being done on angus, which really doesn't help anyone else.  there is no way the companies advertise to track a carcass through the process to gather data on your cattle.

 

[rtm]

Gene Star is nice to look at, but there are so many genes that contribute to say tenderness that it is just the tip of the iceberg. There might be several hundred to several thousand genes that contribute to tenderness so having 12 or so that are identified is not very many. maybe some day they will have them all identified, but until that day comes actual data is still the best. Progeny testing, feedlot conversion, carcass data is the best. ABS's Sire Alliance data is great

 

[simtal]

who's paying you for tenderness? the packer sure isnt.

 

[Joe Boy]

I like the feed conversion, growth factors, etc.  I do hope the genetic Testing works, but I like the actual feed lot test.  I believe such test are of great value.

I have had bulls, rams, and boars that grew well and out grew their peers, but did not pass that on.  I have had sires that the real value was not fully known until their grandchildren were in the feedlots.  The sire test did not prove their value, but perhaps the genetic test can.

People who buy bulls for ranches are not interested in photos, but performance.  They want easy calving, fast growing and quick finishing animals.  Show cattle and 20 cow breeders do not produce what they want very often.  Market show cattle are going the wrong way right now with little bitty bulls that do not grow very fast and convert feed at an efficient rate.  They are also breeding cattle without longevity and have the inability to walk when finished.  I went to ta show this weekend and there were several calves that walked straddle legged and stiff legged that did not do that when they showed in Fort Wroth in January.  The calf owners thought it was the hard ground, due to moving the calves around to get them in better conditions due to the hard wet winter.  It is genetics.

Today we are fortunate to have the great tool of science that will hopefully be able to test for the qualities that are needed in the industry.

 

[knabe]

I went to ta show this weekend and there were several calves that walked straddle legged and stiff legged that did not do that when they showed in Fort Wroth in January. 

i thought only breeding females did this.  people must be selecting for it. :