Late Weaning

[rkaiser]

I'd be prepared to wager that you would challenge any thought in any human mind including your own grassfarmer...LOL What would we do without you...

First off, why not select genetically and use butterfat to increase rib eye size ---- per hundred pounds.

Secondly, why would you think that it is antagonistic to select for rib eye size vs butterfat?

Rib eye size is only a benefit if we have any customers left that would like to eat a rib eye steak rather than all the burger we are producing these days on carcasses that are built for lean yield supported by implants and beta agonists.

Could you imagine the effect that this could have on our industry if even a few of us put it into practice. 10% is a lot of increased rib eye area, and that was only our one little unsupported experiment.

One last point about the maternal breed comment. I personally don't believe that there is room in an efficient and implant/ractopamine free industry for maternal AND paternal selection. Once again, I believe this is a choice based on profit from gain alone, rather than quality and efficiency of the cow herd. A feminine cow bred to a masculine bull will always produce a quality carcass animal. Crossbred or purebred. It's natural.... LOL

[wd9]

Bucket, our crop has little to do with
actual trade.

[fjlip]

Just had another 1.5" in 10 minutes with 100KPH wind and lots of penny size hail... getting closer to zero bu every storm.
Water unreal!
Never seen such fury in all my years.

[grassfarmer]

Think it through Randy - your same cows/ different
years/different feeding protocol resulted in a 10%
increase in rib eye area scan results on the bulls. You
were not changing the bulls genetically you were
changing them by feeding them butterfat - there will
be no genetic difference in the offspring of the bulls.
Indeed leaving calves on the mothers may be masking
your ability to select the ones with genetically higher
rib-eye areas.
I didn't say that it was antagonistic to select for ribeye
vs butterfat. I said that i would wager that ribeye area
and butterfat will be antagonistic traits - there is a
difference. Isn't meat always antagonistic to milk?
Think dairy cows versus beef cow at opposite ends of
the spectrum.

I say for efficient production with or without
implants/ractopamines there has always got to be
room for maternal AND paternal selection. Through
mating the two strains the highest levels of efficiency
are achieved. As far as selection in a maternal or
commercial cattle herd is concerned don't forget the
old maxim:
In overall economic importance, fertility is five times
more important than the growth traits and ten times
more important than carcass traits.

Keep the carcass selection for the Charolais and Limo
bulls/breeds, select the maternal cows to be cows.

[wd9]

It is some awful scary weather and harvest
is a long way away!

[gaucho]

Think about it this way GF... if Randy's experiment is true than would it not mean that the calves that are late weaned will have better carcass qualities regardless...put is simpler the late weaned calves were better able to express their genetic potential .. I thought what Gerald Fry said sometimes was BS but the old boy has some good points... I would also believe part of the equation is the bypass protein and not just butterfat.

[SASKFARMER3]

2 GD inches in this storm. Come on enough
is enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No hail but wheat is lodged from one end
to the other. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
water water every where.

[MarshallDillon]

I recall the Manitoba Canola Growers AGM in Brandon in March, where I met a bunch of young farmers from Saskatchewan who told me that farming was up, up and away with no looking back and no need of fear. Honestly.
(I knew it was complete, unadulterated BS, but I just had to share)

[sumdumguy]

SF3 what clouds were over you! Regina North
was just black. 30 degree days and SE wind
means get ready. How much rain did you get?
We heard a tornado touched down on Number
one highway at Balgonie. No details available?

[sumdumguy]

Environment Canada shows 30 degrees by
weekend again.

In about 1992 (hope my memory is correct) we
were harvesting Lentils, 100 degrees, fire trucks
following combines. My son and I had to goto
Yorkton for a couple of days, Came back to
frozen crops, Augst 18. Lentils in swath
downgraded badly. Standing, totally fried.

The joys of farming. This year full moon is August
31? but that hasn't mean't anything last few
years.