COW/CALF CORNER
The Newsletter
From the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service
February 23, 2007
In this Issue
Winter Wheat Grazing is Almost Over in Oklahoma
By Derrell S. Peel, OSU Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist
Culling Based on Disposition Helps the Entire Beef Industry
By Glenn Selk, OSU Extension Animal Reproduction Specialist
Winter Wheat Grazing is Almost Over in Oklahoma
by Derrell Peel
Oklahoma is warm and windy this week and two things will be very apparent in the next couple of weeks. One is that this kind of warmth and wind will dry things up quickly and it will be apparent again very soon that the drought is not over. Although we have received some moisture this winter, subsoil moisture is still very limited and surface moisture will disappear quickly with normal spring winds.
The second factor is that we are very close to first hollow stem (FHS) for winter wheat which means that grazing cattle will be moved off of wheat pastures soon. Dr. Jeff Edwards, the OSU Extension Wheat Specialist indicates that some wheat varieties are already at FHS and the majority of wheat varieties will reach FHS shortly after March 1. To the extent that we have a wheat pasture run of cattle, it should happen in the next two weeks. However, I don’t expect a large wheat pasture run this year. While most dual-purpose wheat will not be grazed out this year, many producers with dual-purpose wheat have considerably fewer cattle than normal this year. There are some cattle in grazing-only systems that are wheat or wheat-rye mixtures that will be grazing out pasture until May. Much of grazing-only type winter pasture is in the south central and southwest part of Oklahoma and parts of Texas where moisture conditions have been as good as anywhere this winter.
The USDA Cattle on Feed report for February showed that feedlot inventories as of February 1 have fallen to 11.726 million head, 97 percent of this time last year. January marketings were up 2 percent while January placements were down 23 percent from year ago levels. The very small placement level is partly a continuation of reduced placements in recent months aggravated by severe weather conditions through much of January. Some of the cattle not placed in January were shoved into February or will be placed in March as feedlot conditions improve. However, placements will remain limited due to tight feeder supplies (especially limited supplies of heavy feeder cattle that feedlots prefer right now) and high feed costs. Demand for grazing cattle will be strong this spring unless severe drought conditions develop over the next couple of months. Feeder prices will likely stay strong through the first half of the year but are subject to shocks due to drought potential and corn market volatility.
Culling Based on Disposition Helps the Entire Beef Industry
By Glenn Selk
Problems with excitable cattle are becoming a more important issue in the beef industry, both from the standpoint of handler and animal safety and economic returns. Colorado State University (Voisinet, et al. 1996. Colorado Beef Program Report.) conducted an experiment examining the effects of temperament on weight gains and the incidence of “dark cutting”. Cattle were temperament ranked, on a 5-point system, while animals were held on a single animal scale. Their results show that there is a highly significant effect of temperament ranking on average daily gain. Animals exhibiting the highest temperament ranking also have the lowest average daily gains. Conversely, animals that were the calmest had the highest average daily gains. Their results also show that those cattle that have the highest temperament ranking, those that were berserk, also have the highest incidence of dark cutters. Dark cutter carcasses have a very undesirable dark-colored lean that is difficult to market through normal grocery store meat counters. Dark cutter carcasses will often be discounted approximately $35 per hundred pounds compared to the brightly colored carcasses. In the Colorado State University study, 25% of the cattle that had a temperament score of 5 exhibited dark cutting, while less than 5% of the cattle that had temperament scores of 1,2,3, and 4 exhibited dark cutting. These findings show that animals that have very high temperament scores have reduced feedlot performance and increased incidence of dark cutting.
Louisiana State University researchers (DeRouen and Reger, 2007 Journal of Animal Science Abstracts) recently presented data about the impact of temperament on growth and reproductive performance of beef replacement heifers. They used crossbred heifers that were evaluated for “chute score” (similar to that discussed above) and exit velocity. Exit velocity is a measurement of the speed at which the heifer would travel as she exited a working chute. “Slow” heifers (presumably more docile) were heavier at breeding time and tended to have a higher body condition score. Pregnancy rate did not significantly differ between “slow”, “medium”, and “fast” heifers when all crossbreds were considered. However, it was interesting to note that pregnant Brahman-Hereford F1 cross heifers tended to have lower exit velocities (at both weaning and at the end of the breeding season) than their counterparts that failed to become pregnant. These researchers concluded that some important relationships between growth, reproduction and temperament may exist in beef replacement heifers.
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