Grade and yield

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cowman":3ns95yff said:
Which makes more money on the grids, grade or yield? Thanks.

That's a tough question. Here's a link to the USDA site that gives prices on a general grid. You don't really get hurt until you get to a YG 4, but you take a pretty good hit on Select versus Choice and no YG will make up for a Standard QG. Laura's Lean offers very good premiums on high yielding cattle, but they have to meet her specs, too. The thing you need to be careful of when you're aiming for YG premiums is cows that produce high yielding calves will often be hard keepers and not breed back. Open cows are costly.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/lm_ct155.txt
 
"The thing you need to be careful of when you're aiming for YG premiums is cows that produce high yielding calves will often be hard keepers and not breed back. Open cows are costly. "

Could you extrapolate.
 
Ok, then I will guess. I think he is saying that cows that produce lean calves, i.e. calves with a lot of muscle and little fat are hard keepers. I find that hard to believe would depend on the breed I would think.
 
Ruby ,
The things that influence YG have nothing to do with "doability". A cow's ability to maintain herself also crosses breed boundaries. It is a relationship of her width and capacity as compared to her length and height also factoring in things like heterosis and vigor. Too many people are believing acedemia on some of these theorys.It also seems like some cows use more calories than others for no other reason than they just do.
Either way there are Charolais and Limo's and others that can get by on nothing and inversly some english cattle that are moderate still cant survive on the best of care. I know because I have some of each.
 
Could not agree more, over the years our cows have tended toward deep bodied animals who seem to perform on what ever they can find.
One of my favorites families goes back to a cow that is fairly large but when she was a young thing managed to breed back in a drought while skinny. Our AI tech doubled over in laughter when I ran her into the chute to be palpated. He thought there was no way that heifer could have bred back. LOL sure enough she had. We had a drought for a few more years and one spring after the drought finally broke I was walking out in the pasture and passed a large sleek filled out cow and asked who the heck are you. Turned out it was the skinny bred back heifer who finally got enough to eat and showed her potential. Have several daughters from her and granddaughters. I like doers!

Ollie":1sng7k5p said:
Ruby ,
The things that influence YG have nothing to do with "doability". A cow's ability to maintain herself also crosses breed boundaries. It is a relationship of her width and capacity as compared to her length and height also factoring in things like heterosis and vigor. Too many people are believing acedemia on some of these theorys.It also seems like some cows use more calories than others for no other reason than they just do.
Either way there are Charolais and Limo's and others that can get by on nothing and inversly some english cattle that are moderate still cant survive on the best of care. I know because I have some of each.
 

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