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 is the study of heredity, or how traits are passed from parent to off-spring. There are many new techniques in the cattle industry as a result of these studies. Line-breeding, or mating two cows with similar gene pools, can result in maximizing certain traits like rapid growth and top carcass quality (ratio of meat to bone, lean to fat, higher-quality cuts to lesser). However, breeding closely-related animals in order to get certain traits can lead to problems, like infertility, low survival rates in calves, and less resistance to disease.
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.
An understanding of the way heredity works is helpful in herd management. It is known now that in-breeding, or breeding animals with similar gene pools, is detrimental to their health and vitality. Out-breeding works better, by selecting animals within the particular breed but in no way related. This improves fertility, the number of live births, the ability of calves to thrive, and total health and productive life of the animals.
What works even better is cross-breeding, when each parent is from a different breed. The good traits of both will be intensified by hybridization. Ranchers call it 'hybrid vigor' and value cross-breds for their excellent across-the-board performance.
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.
Success in the cattle industry comes with good herd management and proper care of the very best cows obtainable. Genetics helps get the most out of the effort and expense of raising beef.
Genetics is the study of heredity, or how traits are passed from parent to off-spring. There are many new techniques in the cattle industry as a result of these studies. Line-breeding, or mating two cows with similar gene pools, can result in maximizing certain traits like rapid growth and top carcass quality (ratio of meat to bone, lean to fat, higher-quality cuts to lesser). However, breeding closely-related animals in order to get certain traits can lead to problems, like infertility, low survival rates in calves, and less resistance to disease.
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.
An understanding of the way heredity works is helpful in herd management. It is known now that in-breeding, or breeding animals with similar gene pools, is detrimental to their health and vitality. Out-breeding works better, by selecting animals within the particular breed but in no way related. This improves fertility, the number of live births, the ability of calves to thrive, and total health and productive life of the animals.
What works even better is cross-breeding, when each parent is from a different breed. The good traits of both will be intensified by hybridization. Ranchers call it 'hybrid vigor' and value cross-breds for their excellent across-the-board performance.
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.
Success in the cattle industry comes with good herd management and proper care of the very best cows obtainable. Genetics helps get the most out of the effort and expense of raising beef.
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