djinwa
Well-known member
I continue to be fascinated with the way the cattle industry went black.
I was told by a producer in central WA state who has dairy and small feedlot that he lost 30 head of blacks in heat wave a few years ago. He said the big feedlot in town lost over 1000 head of blacks. He said the lighter colors did okay. That reminds me of the study done in Iowa from death loss in 1995 of 3750 cattle:
https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/e4e7ba3e-3a68-4084-b081-b83ca5d36c27/content
"Thirty out of 36 producers indicated higher death loss in black cattle and the other six producers indicated higher death loss with red cattle and had no black cattle on feed. One producer indicated only 20% of the cattle in the pen were black, but 80% of the death loss was black cattle."
That same heat we had a few years ago made problems with fertility. A friend recently told me his brother who has about 500 head of black angus cows had significant numbers turn up open that same year. His neighbor had 40% opens. This discusses negative fertility impact of heat on cows (poor follicle development and implantation, etc), and on bulls (poor sperm development).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6616461/
The rumen of cattle produces heat from microbial action, like a steaming compost pile. Cattle have to work to dissipate the heat, mostly by increasing respiration (panting). Depending on the stage of heat stress, energy needs increase by 7 to 25%. Good article:
https://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2001/July/CT159.shtml
It also discusses the decreased feed consumption of cattle in the heat.
I have observed many more flies on black cattle than the whites. This study in Wyoming showed over 4 times more flies on blacks than whites. As of 2017, estimated cost of flies to cattle industry was 1.75 billion dollars, from blood loss and energy spent fighting flies.
https://www.uwyo.edu/ipm/_files/doc...tially-parasitised-by-haematobia-irritans.pdf
So the response to all this is to turn the cattle industry black. Non-angus breeds became black so they could sell as CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF.
Human nature is such that we pay more attention to revenue than expenses, and don't think long-term. Those I know who frequent the casino only tell me of their winnings. I would not expect black cattle producers to suddenly give up their big salebarn checks, as that is the market. But it seems if the market could slowly shift to lower cost cattle, there would be increased profit in the long run. And it doesn't seem like a very good marketing strategy to have piles of dead cattle from heat, as more people care about animal welfare, and we should also.
My brother who built and worked feedlots once quipped, "To be a real cattleman you need a dead pile". Is that the vision?
The University of Florida developed a White Angus (Ona White Angus) which had body temperatures 2 degrees lower than the black angus. And 80% more sweating. They are mostly black angus with a white coat. Which gives the carcass and reproductive benefits of angus (vs brahma) while being lower cost from heat, flies, etc. Here is the info sheet from 2016 when they were selling the herd:
https://rcrec-ona.ifas.ufl.edu/media/rcrec-onaifasufledu/pdf/FD-handout-Ona-White-Angus-info-(1).pdf
I spoke with the 2 people who bought the herd. Claude Burdett in Tignall, GA has 40+ females and 6 bulls, using them as commercial cows, with no plans to develop breed. He didn't know anything about collecting semen. Michael Vieira is in Texas, and has sold semen to South America, but said producers in the U.S. haven't been interested, so he is using them commercially also. He is looking for more investors to develop the breed.
I have limited acres and just a couple cows, but seems someone should be interested in this opportunity, especially if direct marketing and not dependent on salebarn. Would be a shame to let the 50 years of work and research go to waste.
Michael's phone number is at the bottom of this article.
https://www.newswire.com/news/a-leg...dr-roscoe-moore-as-senior-scientific-21010105
BTW, he mentioned his interest in the PSR gene which provides resistance to E. Coli and Salmonella, which cannot occur in black cattle. He also is working on getting the slick hair gene, which is also important for heat tolerance. He was the first to get homozygous slick hair gene Holstein bull.
I was told by a producer in central WA state who has dairy and small feedlot that he lost 30 head of blacks in heat wave a few years ago. He said the big feedlot in town lost over 1000 head of blacks. He said the lighter colors did okay. That reminds me of the study done in Iowa from death loss in 1995 of 3750 cattle:
https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/e4e7ba3e-3a68-4084-b081-b83ca5d36c27/content
"Thirty out of 36 producers indicated higher death loss in black cattle and the other six producers indicated higher death loss with red cattle and had no black cattle on feed. One producer indicated only 20% of the cattle in the pen were black, but 80% of the death loss was black cattle."
That same heat we had a few years ago made problems with fertility. A friend recently told me his brother who has about 500 head of black angus cows had significant numbers turn up open that same year. His neighbor had 40% opens. This discusses negative fertility impact of heat on cows (poor follicle development and implantation, etc), and on bulls (poor sperm development).
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6616461/
The rumen of cattle produces heat from microbial action, like a steaming compost pile. Cattle have to work to dissipate the heat, mostly by increasing respiration (panting). Depending on the stage of heat stress, energy needs increase by 7 to 25%. Good article:
https://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2001/July/CT159.shtml
It also discusses the decreased feed consumption of cattle in the heat.
I have observed many more flies on black cattle than the whites. This study in Wyoming showed over 4 times more flies on blacks than whites. As of 2017, estimated cost of flies to cattle industry was 1.75 billion dollars, from blood loss and energy spent fighting flies.
https://www.uwyo.edu/ipm/_files/doc...tially-parasitised-by-haematobia-irritans.pdf
So the response to all this is to turn the cattle industry black. Non-angus breeds became black so they could sell as CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF.
Human nature is such that we pay more attention to revenue than expenses, and don't think long-term. Those I know who frequent the casino only tell me of their winnings. I would not expect black cattle producers to suddenly give up their big salebarn checks, as that is the market. But it seems if the market could slowly shift to lower cost cattle, there would be increased profit in the long run. And it doesn't seem like a very good marketing strategy to have piles of dead cattle from heat, as more people care about animal welfare, and we should also.
My brother who built and worked feedlots once quipped, "To be a real cattleman you need a dead pile". Is that the vision?
The University of Florida developed a White Angus (Ona White Angus) which had body temperatures 2 degrees lower than the black angus. And 80% more sweating. They are mostly black angus with a white coat. Which gives the carcass and reproductive benefits of angus (vs brahma) while being lower cost from heat, flies, etc. Here is the info sheet from 2016 when they were selling the herd:
https://rcrec-ona.ifas.ufl.edu/media/rcrec-onaifasufledu/pdf/FD-handout-Ona-White-Angus-info-(1).pdf
I spoke with the 2 people who bought the herd. Claude Burdett in Tignall, GA has 40+ females and 6 bulls, using them as commercial cows, with no plans to develop breed. He didn't know anything about collecting semen. Michael Vieira is in Texas, and has sold semen to South America, but said producers in the U.S. haven't been interested, so he is using them commercially also. He is looking for more investors to develop the breed.
I have limited acres and just a couple cows, but seems someone should be interested in this opportunity, especially if direct marketing and not dependent on salebarn. Would be a shame to let the 50 years of work and research go to waste.
Michael's phone number is at the bottom of this article.
https://www.newswire.com/news/a-leg...dr-roscoe-moore-as-senior-scientific-21010105
BTW, he mentioned his interest in the PSR gene which provides resistance to E. Coli and Salmonella, which cannot occur in black cattle. He also is working on getting the slick hair gene, which is also important for heat tolerance. He was the first to get homozygous slick hair gene Holstein bull.
