Judging Characteristics of Beef Cattle Breeds

Selection and Culling:
Picking Genetics for your Cattle Convenance Herd

Paradigm Credit: Barry Skeates, Flickr, CC By 2.0

The genetic choice of your beefiness cattle convenance herd is a two-role process:

1. overall breed pick determines whether your cattle are adjusted to your climate and environmental weather condition and whether your cattle's finishing weights and finishing age suit your beefiness product and marketing strategy;

2. selection and culling of private cattle is used to select for high beef cattle fertility and low maintenance costs in your beef cattle direction plan.

The procedure of choosing the best beefiness cattle breeds to match your climate and production goals is covered in a separate related article here.

In this commodity I am going to focus on signal #2; how to consistently select individual cattle genetics to maximize fertility and low-maintenance characteristics, regardless of which cattle breeds you choose for your subcontract. I volition explain the genetic selection and culling process that volition assistance you decide which individual animals to include in your cattle breeding herd.

Genetic selection and performance-based culling:

Selecting the near fertile and most efficient cattle for your breeding herd is a ii-pronged strategy that is based on:

1. selecting cattle convenance stock that brandish a package of physical characteristics, which are indicative of high beef cattle fertility and maintenance efficiency,

2. and implementing a strict culling program to remove any animals that fail to perform well in your production organisation:

In the wild there are no humans making the final judgements nearly which genetics will be included or excluded from the cattle breeding herd. There are merely ii simple criteria that determine if any animal's genetics will continue on through the generations or be abruptly removed from the gene pool - fertility and efficiency.

Withal remarkably, these two simple criteria are so powerful that they consistently produce about identical-looking individuals within the entire herd, generation later on generation after generation. The all-time efforts of human judgement during herd selection are rarely, if e'er, able to produce such remarkable consistency within a herd and that consistency erodes even so further equally the generations evolve. It is therefore worthwhile to explore natural selection processes in nature and to empathize how man judgement affects herd selection in our domestic cattle herds.

Nature's selection process

In the wild, only competition and the struggle for survival determines whether genetics survive or pass into the dustbin of history.

If yous are a wild grazing species, you need to survive the winter, you need to out-compete your peers to go access to resources to prepare for the next wintertime, and you need to consistently produce as many offspring as possible to give your genetics the best take a chance of generational continuity. The most fertile, about competitive, virtually adapted, about efficient animals will add together to the cistron puddle while the cattle genetics of the to the lowest degree efficient, least competitive, least adapted, to the lowest degree fertile animals will gradually disappear through premature death or lack of breeding success.

Natural option decides what characteristics will dominate:

If wider hips, a at-home demeanor, a deep chest, or a broad cage provide an advantage to survival and/or beef cattle fertility then they will spread through whole herd past out-competing other genetic traits that don't accept these advantageous characteristics. While this natural selection process is widely known, the real trick for commercial beef producers is to larn how to identify exactly what characteristics to look for among your cattle to reveal the nigh fertile, most efficient animals.

Gender-specific characteristics:

 It is also important to remember that the most advantageous male person characteristics will be quite unlike than the well-nigh advantageous female characteristics considering they play very different roles within the herd.

Wide hips on a moo-cow are advantageous since she needs to squeeze a calf through those hips when she gives nascency. But broad hips or narrow shoulders on a bull are not advantageous - in fact they have quite the opposite effect. A bull needs wide shoulders (front-heavy) to aid in the competitive ability struggles during the cattle breeding season. All the same, wide hips on a bull indicate a lack of masculinity (it's a feminine trait), which will cause him to throw sub-fertile offspring. In other words, the characteristics that reveal the nearly fertile and efficient individuals are gender-specific.

The characteristics of beef cattle fertility and efficiency are Non brood-specific:

Luckily the characteristics that reveal beef cattle fertility and efficiency tend to be consistent across all beef cattle breeds. In other words, the traits used to identify clues about the fertility and efficiency of your cattle will exist the same in all breeds regardless of the unique characteristics that allow individual breeds to accommodate to specific climates.

For example, the characteristics used to place the almost fertile and efficient tropically-adapted Nelore bull or cow will be near identical to the characteristics used to place the almost fertile and efficient common cold-climate-adapted Devon bull or cow despite the fact that their frame size, finishing weight, adaptation to temperature, and their parasite resistance will all be extremely different.

What happens when humans decide which animals to include in the cattle herd:

The divergence betwixt genetic selection in the wild and genetic selection in our domestic cattle herds is that we intervene to prevent the cruel uncompromising consequences of lower quality genetics. Nosotros don't let predators purge the herd of the weak and sickly animals. Nosotros don't let our cattle starve to decease. We provide help when a cow runs into difficulty during the calving procedure. And our feed and nutritional supplements assistance some cattle remain fertile that would otherwise neglect to rebreed in the wild. Our moral responsibleness to our domestic animals and our farm's profitability depends on this intervention.

Only past the same stroke, our intervention also removes, distorts or reduces the strict natural choice procedure that grazing species face in the wild. This causes less fertile and higher maintenance genetics to be perpetuated in our cattle herds.

The broad range of genetic variation inside our domestic cattle reveals how much dilution has taken place. Wide hips/narrow hips, broad cage/pinched muzzle, deep chest/shallow breast, etc - all within the aforementioned gender and breed. They tin can't all be right... and they're non. Many of these traits reveal that less fertile, high maintenance genetics have crept into our herds as a consequence of our well-intentioned intervention because we didn't recognize how to subsequently remove these genetics during our genetic pick and alternative process. In nature just the best-adapted survive, but in a domestic herd virtually anybody survives so the quality of the genetics that are perpetuated depends almost entirely on each farmer's ability to identify and remove less ideal genetics.

In other words, your eye must replace the role of the predator and the harsh realities of starvation and their consequences during the genetic option procedure.

Selecting for different markets and market trends:

Farther adding to genetic variation within our domestic cattle is that not anybody is picking cattle based on the same criteria. While there are many producers that are strictly focused on producing the best genetics for beef production, some are focused on a grain-fed industry, others are focused on pasture-based performance. Change the production strategy or the selection criteria and different genetics will thrive.

Then there are breeders who are afterwards a certain 'expect' in order to compete in the bear witness ring. Simply like in the domestic dog-breeding world, these appearance-based competitions tin can create their ain culture where certain appearances are sought out at the expense of others to suit trends. Cattle, just like dogs, human hair length, music styles, and pant styles, are constantly changing to suit certain trends. We don't notice it from one year to the next, but compare photos of a prize Hereford, a prize Bulldog, and a kid at a rock concert in the '60'due south versus today and all of a sudden the dramatic changes in trend become very obvious.

There is nothing incorrect with changing trends when those changes contribute to beef cattle fertility and efficiency in your product surroundings. But that'due south the rub... identifying if a characteristic will actually benefit your cattle's performance in your grass-fed beefiness production program or whether these changes are creeping in to cater to market place trends and customers that take very unlike goals to your ain.

That's why it is so vital to see the herds that you option your cattle breeding stock from actually perform on pasture in a production environment that is similar to your own. Visit your cattle breeders at their farms instead of basing your decisions on awards or appearances in a evidence ring. It's merely on the farm that you will encounter if the breeder'south genetic choice process matches your goals for your beef cattle management program.

The importance of pure-bred cattle breeders:

Pure-bred breeders play an of import role in the cattle industry. They are responsible for preserving the pure genetic pools that commercial beef producers depict from to create the genetic mix all-time suited to their individual climate, marketplace, and production strategy.

Without purebred breeders, the unique celebrated adaptations of all of the distinct ancestral beef cattle breeds would be lost and replaced by a single muddled mix that no longer has an border in any single climate. With so many dissimilar climates and environmental conditions in unlike beefiness-producing regions around the world and with and so many different production strategies (even within the grass-fed manufacture), 1 size does not fit all when it comes to breed selection. Purebred breeders are vitally important to preserving the genetic multifariousness of the beef cattle breeds so that beef producers tin can source the best genetics for their unique situation.

Just this wide range of genetic variation is also part of the claiming that commercial beef producers face when selecting cattle convenance stock. Every purebred cattle breeder has a unlike marketplace that they cater to when making genetic selection decisions. Show band, feedlot, pasture grazing plan, so on. And at that place are very different production strategies within each of these broad market place categories which vary from region to region and from farm to farm co-ordinate to environmental differences, different business strategies, and unlike trends in different regions. Once again, that'south why it's important to see how the genetics you lot are considering actually perform in a production environment that is similar to how y'all volition heighten your beef cattle. Visit your breeders' farms!

It's besides important to call up that purebred breeders are also catering to the demands of their customers. If we focus on EPA scores and testify band ribbons, that'due south what they will evangelize. But if we demand performance statistics in pasture grazing programs, then in that location volition be purebred breeders that will cater to that demand too. That's why it's important for grass-fed producers to be very clear nearly what they are looking for when they go shopping for new genetics for their herds, and communicate those demands! The marketing information on offer and the characteristics of the cattle that the breeders offer for sale volition just cater to those who make their needs known.

Single-trait selection versus a balanced, comprehensive genetic bundle

The other cause of baloney in genetics is single-trait option. Single-trait selection is when breeders pick genetics to accentuate specific individual traits, such as longer legs, a specific color, higher milk production, then on. But traits do not exist in a vacuum. You cannot alter one trait without affecting others, though unfortunately this interconnectedness is oft not immediately credible.

Genetics are an interconnected parcel. Change ane trait and yous alter the balance within the package. It is only possible to maintain a balanced gear up of traits that function smoothly as a consummate parcel when beef cattle fertility and maintenance efficiency are the core of your genetic pick process.

But when we focus on unmarried traits, bad things happen. And they often don't happen right abroad; usually they merely becoming apparent much later.

For case, focusing on narrow shoulders when selecting replacement bulls causes his female offspring to have calving difficulties in subsequent generations.

Focusing on accentuating milk production in some dairy breeds caused the bulls' temperament in these dairy breeds to deteriorate, making them mean, aggressive, and outright unsafe to both each other and their handlers. These unintended consequences illustrate how important it is to maintain a counterbalanced parcel, which we can simply do if we monitor the upshot of our changes on fertility and efficiency.

Genetic pick - the characteristics of a counterbalanced bundle

In order to choose the most fertile and most maintenance-efficient genetics for your cattle breeding herd, you need to identify the concrete characteristics that provide clues to which animals are most likely to be the best performers. But while nosotros apply physical traits for our selection process, information technology is of import to remember that these characteristics are but clues to future performance , not the last verdict on whether that advent will actually interpret into the best performing genetics for your herd.

The alternative process described below is an equally important part of the pick process - that's where you monitor the functioning of the genetics that yous pick. Performance comes first - no matter how 'perfect' an animate being looks, how much it price, how impressive the ribbons, or how awe-inspiring the lineage and operation statistics of its parents - whatever fauna that fails to perform in your production program needs to be culled, without exception. Beef production is most producing beefiness at the lowest cost, non about collecting fancy underperforming genetics in your pasture.

Picking your cattle starts with the fine art of choosing a balanced set of concrete characteristics that are clues to future operation, simply then testing that operation in your product system. Performance is the final verdict on your genetics - that's where y'all run into if the clues provided by the physical characteristics delivered their suggested potential.

Genetics that deliver high fertility and low maintenance get to stay with the herd, while genetics that fail to perform are culled. You e'er desire to skim off the lesser performers to continually improve the overall fertility and maintenance efficiency of your cattle herd.

Cows and Heifers:

Always keep your cow'southward role in mind when picking cows and heifers for your cattle breeding herd.

Cows and heifers advent:

• Broad, dogie-bearing hips.

• Large gut for big foraging capacity.

• Big mouth for maximum grazing intake per mouthful and maximum competitiveness inside the grazing herd.

• Well-formed udder (nicely-formed teats, not pendulous, not hairy) for skilful milk product.

• Proportioned, balanced build.

• Feminine appearance.

• Big nostrils and wide muzzle for easy breathing.

• Calm temperament - not wild-eyed, skittish, or flighty.

• Shiny hair indicates healthy secretion of oils that help resist parasites and signal practiced health.

• Salubrious appearance (hair not shedding out completely in the jump is a clue to poor health even if other less obvious signs are non visible).

The parents of your cows and heifers should:

• Share the same gender-specific physical characteristics described here.

• Calve unassisted (if a calf required assistance during nativity, information technology should automatically be excluded from your cattle breeding program as an adult).

• Perform well in a production strategy similar to your own (i.east. grass-based pasture rotation, winter grazing, summertime calving, etc.) and have a history of producing calves that perform well in similar production conditions to your own.

Bulls and bull calves:

Ever continue your bull'southward role in the herd in mind when picking bulls and balderdash calves for your cattle breeding herd.

Bull and bull calf advent:

• Wide, strong shoulders, heavy, short neck, coarse caput, and a muscular rump to provide ability during competitive battles with other rivals during the cattle convenance season.

• Proportioned, balanced build - but slightly front-heavy (within reason) for battle with other bulls (come across previous point...).

• Masculine appearance.

• Large gut for large competitive foraging capacity.

• Big oral fissure for maximum grazing intake per mouthful and maximum competitiveness within the grazing herd.

• A scrotum that is well-formed, equally-sized, balanced (no twist), buckskin color, and covered with only very fine, thin hair so it doesn't overheat the sperm.

• Scrotum should be a minimum of 36 cm (14.17 inches) in diameter by the fourth dimension the calf reaches 12 months of age.

• NO enlarged teats - enlarged teats on a bull are a sign of a hormone imbalance!.

• Skilful, obvious muscle definition - lack of muscle definition is a sign of low testosterone and consequently lower beef cattle fertility.

• Calm temperament - not wild-eyed, skittish, flighty, or overly aggressive and looking for a fight.

• Large nostrils and wide muzzle for easy breathing.

• Shiny hair indicates healthy secretion of oils that help resist parasites and bespeak good health.

• Coarser, curlier, darker hair effectually the head, neck and lower part of his body (a sign of high male hormones).

• Healthy appearance (hair not shedding out completely in the spring is a clue to poor health even if other less obvious signs are not visible).

The parents of your bulls and bull calves should:

• Share the same gender-specific concrete characteristics described here.

• Calve unassisted (if a dogie required assistance during nascency, it should automatically be excluded from your cattle breeding program equally an developed).

• Perform well in a production strategy similar to your own (i.e. grass-based pasture rotation, winter grazing, summertime calving, etc.) and accept a history of producing calves that perform well in similar product conditions to your ain...

And make sure yous do a semen test on any bull before you buy him and every unmarried twelvemonth before the start of breeding season.

You will observe a complete list of all the physical traits to look for in cows, heifers, and bulls, besides every bit diagrams of what the counterbalanced male person and female parcel should wait like on pages 22 to 27 of Grass-fed Cattle.

You may also be interested in reading the article on Growing cattle, fat reserves, and futurity fertility to learn how to employ calving date and trunk fatty levels during the adolescent phase of sexual development to maximize the lifetime fertility of your young future breeding stock (both male and female).

When ownership cattle from other breeders, information technology is very important to understand the nutritional factors affecting fertility discussed in the linked article above. These nutritional effects on fertility during an earlier stage of the calves' evolution may not be physically apparent when looking at the heifers or bull calves on auction day, but understanding the production atmospheric condition and nutritional strategies that maximize fertility and efficiency will give y'all a much more informed perspective when visiting your cattle breeders' farms and volition provide yous with the right questions to ask to unravel the nutritional history of the calves that you are assessing as your hereafter cattle breeding stock.

Operation-based culling

The physical characteristics in the previous section are clues, not the concluding verdict. Performance in your production system has the final say on which cattle are the most efficient and about fertile cattle that thrive best in your climate, among your environmental conditions, and in your product plan.

Alternative is therefore an integral part of your herd selection process, always removing the least productive, the least efficient, and the to the lowest degree fertile individuals from your herd.

Choosing a balanced bundle of highly fertile, maintenance-efficient concrete characteristics is every bit much an art (preparation your eye through feel) as it is a scientific discipline. Culling is a much stricter process with very clear rules. Either an individual performs, or it does non. Period. At that place are some inapplicable circumstances that can alibi poor performance in exceptional conditions, but they are the exception, not the dominion.

Culling rules:

Culling tip

Maintain a list of animals that required handling throughout the yr so y'all tin cull them at a future date. Requite each treated animal a separate (second) red ear tag (or some other colour code) at the fourth dimension it is treated so you lot tin can hands identify and sort previously-treated animals from the herd on the fly without having to scroll through a long list of cattle records to discover them.

• Failure to conceive during a 42-twenty-four hours cattle convenance season = automatic cull

• Failure to calve unassisted = automatic cull

• Failure to deliver a live calf = automatic cull

• AND, failure to produce a high-quality live dogie at the weaning date = automated cull (baring exceptional circumstances). (Remember that the cow's responsibility for the calf, including immunity to diseases passed on through the colostrum, is not fully over until the calf is weaned!)

• Monitor body condition scores during the wintertime grazing season and aggressively choose high-maintenance individuals from within each age group, including from your balderdash herd whose performance provides a strong clue near the future maintenance efficiency of the next crop of calves!

• Excessive loss of torso condition = automatic cull (i.due east. any individuals that lose body condition faster during the wintertime grazing plan than their age-matched peers are high-maintenance individuals or individuals with chronic subclinical health issues. Neither belong in your cattle breeding herd.) It's just fair to compare individuals to their historic period-mates; mature cows should only be compared to other mature cows, first-calf heifers to outset-calf heifers, 2d-calf heifers to second-dogie heifers, yearlings to yearlings, and bulls to bulls - because the nutritional demands and supplementation needs of each age group is different at different stages of their development and maturity.

• Flighty, nervous behaviour = automatic choose

• Illness = automatic cull . Unless at that place is a articulate oversight in your beef cattle management strategy which caused the disease, you should always choose any fauna with a history of disease because this is a high-maintenance, poorly-adapted individual.
  

When to choose:

Culling does not mean you instantly remove the offending animal from the herd. Flighty nervous individuals are likely best removed equally shortly as possible to prevent the behaviour and stress from spreading to other cattle within the herd, but otherwise information technology is best to go along a list of cattle marked for culling until they reach their maximum weight (and maximum value at slaughter or auction).

In Grass-fed Cattle, I discuss the all-time strategies to fatten cull animals, how to employ them to extend your slaughter season, and what is the best time to sell cull animals, including cows that have a dogie underfoot only should not exist re-bred for some other season.

You can learn more virtually selection and culling practices to ensure that y'all merely include the nigh fertile and efficient individuals in your cattle herd and to ensure that you are continually improving the quality of your cattle genetics in the"Genetics and Breeding: Selecting the Correct Animals for Your Herd" affiliate of Grass-Fed Cattle.

Related Articles: Beef Cattle Breeds - How to choose the perfect breed(s) for your grazing program. Lifelong Beef Cattle Fertility - How calving engagement, pasture nutrition, and trunk fat during adolescent sexual development affect the fertility of your futurity breeding stock for the residue of their adult lives. Grazing Management Summary - a handy stripped-down reference list of the seven Core Grazing Rules. (Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made using Amazon links in my post.) And when you lot're gear up to start planning your cattle farm, check out my book: Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Marketplace Natural Beef.Utilise the links below to explore my book and read reviews on Amazon: Amazon.com #CommissionsEarned Amazon.ca #CommissionsEarned Amazon.co.uk #CommissionsEarned

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