Pounds Trump Quality Every Time

Help Support CattleToday:

It is long.

I don't know if walmart shoppers will go for the choice/select line or not... and to what degree do they add to the market. Like the article said, it has to be additional customers, not just relocating customers.

Most cattleman see results from pounds, not the grade or yeild of an animal. Pounds will always be a lead factor in raising cattle.
 
Most steak lovers do not go to wal-mart to buy their steaks in the first place. Most ranchers feeding out steers want pounds asap there will have to be more dollars for quality going to the producer in order to get the quality in the store. I try to feed mine better than they prob need to obtain pounds that i could get without feeding so well (if that makes sense) but that is just me.
 
sparky1":b4qpwf96 said:
Most steak lovers do not go to wal-mart to buy their steaks in the first place. Most ranchers feeding out steers want pounds asap there will have to be more dollars for quality going to the producer in order to get the quality in the store. I try to feed mine better than they prob need to obtain pounds that i could get without feeding so well (if that makes sense) but that is just me.

It's not the steak lovers that we need to convince to buy beef. It's the ones who are buying pork and chicken at a bargain.

You're right. We aren't getting compensated adequately for any additional quality.
 
Interesting. If we aren't getting adequately compensated for additional quality, what is the incentive for doing the extras that impact the end product other than weight? Should breeders focus solely on pounds and disregard carcass traits?
 
It appears to me that the incentive is to produce cattle that wont get docked,YG4 Std.gr ect. A steer that gains a lot of lbs/day efficiently and turns in a choice YG 2 carcass has always been a Home Run for me.
 
Packers do not have a clue as to what they are buying if they are buying in the general market. The only way to generate more dollars on better beef is to direct market to the packer or consumer, depending on the size of your operation. I have a friend that breeds,feeds and delivers live calives to small privately owned butcher shops. He gets paid per pound on carcass grade.
Feedlots, on the other hand, generate profits made on gain and feed efficiency. Normally they could care less about carcass quality.
The preception of black being of higher quality is why people are breeding black and buying black. I beleive that, as more and more breeds go black, the maket for them will go down as the quality goes down.
 
I would say most feedlot operators worry about quality.They dont have to hit the bulls eye but it gets ugly if they dont even hit the target!
 
R.N.Reed":e2lgo9xa said:
I would say most feedlot operators worry about quality.They dont have to hit the bulls eye but it gets ugly if they dont even hit the target!
Weather they care or not is not relitive. Most feedlots buy what is available. Most feedlots sell based on wait. The only added advantage they may have is in the way they feed them and the reputation they have built. Other than that they would have to sell on carcass marit. Which I do not think would include the average feed lot.
 
I do not argue the point that lbs per day are the major component to profitability in a feedlot animal.However quality is a consideration on every pen that enters the feedlot.If the cattle are a bunch of mixed up poor quality cattle they will be fed to whatever and sold on a live weight basis because grade and yield will kill the operator.If they are quality cattle they will probably be ultrasounded and fed to an optimum and sold on the grid.I would guess on the avg the feeder would pay less for the first pen as well.The real profit comes when you have efficient adg.and quality!
 
I agree. But the problem is that the quality cattle do not grow fast enough to gain the profit that a fast grower will make. It is necessary to do the ultasound to sell the slow grower, higher quality animal at a higher price.
The ideal situation is to breed the genetics into the base stock for quality, cross them to get the highbred vigor, then cross them again to get the highbred terminal calf, all having the genetics for quality carcass. This is a win, win situation for the feedlot. There is still no advantage for the producer unless he somehow can market it a such.
The average producer does not want to mess with it.
 
Yes I agree on the avg.the higher quality cattle do not gain as well as the higher percentage continentals although there are lines in several breeds that do it consistently.The real art then becomes to keep the cow size at an optimum production level otherwise you loose what is made on the other end.
I think right now for the most part the only way to gather the premium on your quality high gaining cattle is to retain ownership.
I agree that the best program for commercial beef production is a crossbred cow bred to a terminal bull preferably a linebred bull.One thought though, the terminal bull may need to be an english bull depending on how much continental is in the cow herd mix
 

Latest posts

Top