Food for thought on cattle breeding preferred by feedlots

[Frankie]

Why are some people so dead set against prime grade? Is there distain for it a product of the inability of their cattle to grade prime?

Prime is really NOT desirable from a production standpoint: cattle have to stay in the feedlot longer, they have to eat more, it takes triple the feed to lay on a pound of fat as it does a pound of lean beef, they are fatter which increases backfat and lowers yield grade.

I'll have to disagree with this. Years ago a buyer for EXCEL told us nobody feeds for Prime. But out of every pen of 100 animals, there'll be 3-5 that grade Prime with the same food and management as the others. They don't stay in the feedlot longer and it doesn't take more feed. They simply have the right genetics.

The Prime bonus really has to be strong to make up for the likely bad yield grade and higher grain and yard costs. To make Prime steaks appeal to consumers in the grocery counter you have to trim a lot of fat product off and the high marbling stil LOOKS fat and scares off a lot of house wives who buy the family's meat. It is NOT very heart healthy. There is more fat and more cholesterol in a prime steak typically than in a Choice steak. A lot of the Prime beef is produced by that toadie little straight Angus heifer that was smaller framed than every other calf in the pen so she stopped growing and started laying on fat. By the time the pen was ready for harvest, she was too darned fat and had been wasting feed standing around for weeks. She graded prime but her conversion was 9 pound to 1. I am not knocking Prime. It is a niche market like grass fed, organic, Wagyu, high lean, etc. I am not saying not to improve your marbling numbers; but I don't think anybody in the industry thinks a 100% Prime across the board calf crop would be beneficial either.

And this is just wrong. Marbling starts at a young age. Backfat and marbling are two different traits and one doesn't necessarily affect the other.

When Future Beef was in business, they discouraged producers from chasing YGs, saying that cows that produced YG1 steers were more likely to not breed back. I've never seen anyone say high marbling cows are a problem though.

 

[VanC]

Gelbviehs marble a lot better than the other continentals

Everything I've ever read has stated that Simmental and Charolais are the best marbling of the major continentals breeds. Has something changed?

 

[3waycross]

Gelbviehs marble a lot better than the other continentals

Everything I've ever read has stated that Simmental and Charolais are the best marbling of the major continentals breeds. Has something changed?

Care to share those studies with us, and who produced them.

 

[Brandonm22]

Yes. I am running mostly Brangus and the cream of the crop each year mostly goes for freezer beef.

Trimming ear for the percentage you cited would net me more on steers. The eared cows are going to raise significantly heavier calves in this climate. But I am going to take a heck of a hit on heifers in the local market. Eared heifers fetch more nickels every time. My heifers aren't going for freezer beef.

That's the biggest difference between here and your area. The half Brahman cows do really well, but the heifers get killed in the ring.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Gelbviehs marble a lot better than the other continentals

Everything I've ever read has stated that Simmental and Charolais are the best marbling of the major continentals breeds. Has something changed?

Care to share those studies with us, and who produced them.

According to the MARC Recearch, Simmental was the top continental for:
% Choice; Shear Force (tie-- ??with who??); Feed Efficiecy by Marbling
But, I really believe that the Charolais and Limo's are the lower marbling continentals, and the Gelvieh is one of the better.

 

[BIZIN]

Two, maybe 3 years ago we had 27 steers on a load of 41 go Prime YG1. All home raised of our own and fed in a pen of 100. They were predominantly 1/2 Black Simm, 1/4 BLK Angus, 1/4 Horned Hereford, and 1/2 Black gelbvieh, 1/4 Black Angus, 1/4 Horned Hereford. Some 1/2 Char, 1/4 Black Angus, 1/4 Horned Hereford, and maybe 5 straight Horned Herefords. They went to Lexington, NE.

 

[Brandonm22]

I tried to look this up and have come to the conclusion that every time they run the MARC the order of marbling for the continentals change. My statement was based on an earlier MARC. Vanc's also is backed up by an earlier MARC.

 

[Frankie]

I tried to look this up and have come to the conclusion that every time they run the MARC the order of marbling for the continentals change. My statement was based on an earlier MARC. Vanc's also is backed up by an earlier MARC.

I've always read/heard Simmentals marbled better, in general, than the other Continentals. But I think MARC will have a hard time these days getting real data from "Continental" breeds, since so many of them have added Angus influence.

Plus, NALF, at least, has made increasing marbling a priority in the breed.

 

[VanC]

I tried to look this up and have come to the conclusion that every time they run the MARC the order of marbling for the continentals change. My statement was based on an earlier MARC. Vanc's also is backed up by an earlier MARC.

I've done a little checking and have come to the same conclusion. Different results for different studies.

 

[backhoeboogie]

I've done a little checking and have come to the same conclusion. Different results for different studies.

Aint that the truth. Pull them out of left field or pull them out of right. Take your pic. Are they selling beefmaster or highlands? Do they live in the desert or in the swamp or somewhere in between?