Bull Breeders Share Thoughts
At Annual Beef Short Course

COLLEGE STATION — Breeds, breeding systems and within-herd selection were among the topics at the Cattlemen’s College portion of the 48^th annual Beef Cattle Short Course here recently.

A panel of producers rounded out that particular session. Each gave a brief overview of their operation and then shared thoughts on such things as customers’ needs and wants, planned crossbreeding systems, technology and data interpretation, and what’s worked for them.

Tom Risinger and his wife started in the bull business in 1961. Primarily they produce range bulls for commercial cows. The bull business, Risinger said, is their meat and potatoes and the females are the gravy.

They raise one purebred breed — Simmental — and three composites — SemiAngus, Sembrah and Hotlander. They sell right at 300 bulls a year, all private treaty. To have bulls available year-round, calving takes place twice a year.

Their average customer has been buying bulls from them for about 15 years and they buy bulls about every two and a half years.

"In the 1960s it was relatively easy and simple to sell bulls," Risinger told listeners. "We were selling 1950 model bulls in the ‘60s. Let me assure you that would be impossible to do today."

Back then most of Risinger’s customers were raising commercial purebred cattle — same breed of cows and the same breed of bull back on those cows.

"We used linebreeding because linebreeding rendered uniformity," Risinger explained, "and we wanted uniform calf crops."

Linebreeding fell out of favor when many in the business got into trouble with dwarfism.

"For awhile we relied strictly on the fact that we were going to sell you a registered bull. That registration paper usually gave a birthdate or birthing season and about a five-generation pedigree," he noted. "That was about all we got out of those papers, and that’s about all those breed associations did for us in those days. It’s amazing what the associations are doing today and the data they’re supplying us with to make decisions.

"We sold those bulls with an East Texas guarantee. It’s like any East Texas guarantee — if you buy it and it breaks, you get to keep both pieces."

In the 1960s under the old East Texas guarantee, calving percentages averaged around 55 percent. Today, in Texas, that percentage is somewhere around 70 percent.

"I’d like to think that the advancements we’ve made with our bulls helped improve that situation."

During the mid-1960s, Risinger made the decision to try artificial insemination, even though AI was not accepted in the purebred business and no breed associations allowed it either. He noticed tremendous progress almost immediately.

"I could visually see some differences in those cattle," he commented, "and that prompted me to think about keeping some records."

Performance Registry International started keeping data for them. They began by keeping track of birthdate, birth weights, weaning date and weaning weights and built on from there. A few years ago Risinger started a total herd enrollment program for his cattle.

"I thought I knew all about my cattle," the breeder told listeners. "What I discovered was I didn’t really know anything about my cattle. What I’ve learned about my cow herd and the true performance of my cow herd and the longevity of my cow herd is that I’ve got as much variation there as in anything else I was measuring."

In the early 1970s crossbred steers were discounted by feeders. Risinger had a set of these crossbred steers — an accident, he said — so he decided to put them in the Great Western Beef Expo, a steer feedout program in Colorado. The results surprised him.

"We won it, and lo and behold, some people came to us about buying bulls. They wanted to buy bulls like the one that sired those crossbred calves," Risinger said. "Even a bigger curiosity to me was that they wanted to buy some bulls just like those steers."

That launched him into another whole arena — feeding his own cattle. Today he more or less feeds the bottom end of his cattle, and in that way he learns about the good and the bad. There have been more than a few years when Risinger would have been much better off selling his entire calf crop, but he made a commitment to his customers back in the ‘70s when he started his feeding program.

"We decided then that feeding cattle was an integral part of our responsibility as a producer of commercial bulls. We feed a few in the south and a few in the north, and we collect carcass data on every one.

"The last 15 months have not been much fun in the cattle feeding business," he added. "Thank goodness we have had some good years in the bull business, because the date we’ve been gathering lately has been expensive.

"The one thing that I’ve learned over these 40 years of selling commercial bulls," he continued, "is that you’ve got to give people what they want. They tell us they want small birthweight and high weaning weight. We try to do it. They tell us they want a moderate frame, thick-ended bull, we try to get it to them. Some want black; some want polled. You have to give them what they want, but in addition it is my responsibility to give my customers what I feel like they need as well. They’re going to need a decent yearling EPD, because someone is going to feed that critter, and they’re going to need a set of balanced maternal EPDs for calving ease and milk and maternal growth, because some of those heifers may end up as replacement females, and then they have to have acceptable carcass EPDs."

Most recently, because of consumer demands, an acceptable tenderness EPD has also become particularly important. Last year he thought he’d found the bull that would do it all — low birthweight, higher than average weaning weight, etc. Turns out that bull had the worst tenderness score of the entire breed. He had to discard all the calves from that bull.

"A breeder of bulls," he reemphasized, "can’t sell bulls with that kind of data."

Next on the panel was Chapparosa ranch manager Tommy Haeglin. The Chapparosa is located in ZaVala County, approximately 125 miles southwest of San Antonio. It is strictly a commercial operation made up of about 1000 F-1 Brahman/Hereford cross cows.

Haeglin originally crossed those F-1 cows with a Beefmaster bull, but he found that the uniformity wasn’t there, and in his mind, uniformity was one of the most critical factors when it came to selling a calf crop. That’s when he made the decision to change to black Angus bulls.

It was a definite start. Animals were more uniform in color, and disposition improved as well.

"I don’t think today that there is enough emphasis put on disposition and eye appeal," he told listeners. "Stop and think about it. How many of our calves or stockers are sold on eye appeal alone? I’d say 80 percent of the calf crops are sold on that basis."

The ranch also has 1900 acres of farmland. They stock 15,000 to 18,000 stockers annually on 19 pivots. Breed type on the stockers, Haeglin said, matters not. Basically he buys black, yellows and reds. Like-colored cattle are run as a group, and in that way are sold as a group.

Eye appeal and uniformity, he reiterated, are key.

Dave Nichols started feeding cattle when he was nine years old.

"The only difference between a cattle feeder and a heroin addict is that heroin addicts have places they can go to get rehabilitated," he joked.

Nichols Farms started performance testing their cattle in 1957.

"Because we were cattle feeders, it made sense to select for rate of gain," he explained.

In short order they went from selling six bulls a year to selling more than 300 bulls a year.

"We don’t auction off our bulls. We feel like we should get 12.5 percent return on our equity, which is half of what corporate America gets. We price them based on what we think their value is, and we sell them all every year."

They also sell 1000 replacement-type heifers annually. Last year those heifers averaged $1150.

Nichols Farm also conducts an annual Genetic Source feeder auction. Last year they sold 3000-plus calves; this year they’ll sell 5000.

"Those calves averaged $58 more per head than other cattle sold that same week in Iowa," he noted.

They have three alliance feedlots, two in Iowa and one in Nebraska, with which they work.

"People want these cattle because they’ll grid," Nichols told listeners. "Selling on the grid is the world we live in. Any day now we’re not going to have the option of selling cattle any other way. That is a given."

Nichols has followed closely the fate of independent hog producers in his home state. It is an indication in some ways, he said, of what’s to come in the beef industry. From 1992 to 1995, he said, Iowa lost 70 percent of its independent swine producers. This, Nichols pointed out, was before $8 hogs.

"A recent survey done in Iowa indicated that 70 percent of consumers have a negative or very negative view of factory farms," he told listeners, "but their perception of family farms was positive or very positive. This is something that we in the beef industry have to promote."

The Nichols family is also involved in a value-added program which involves seven restaurants in Iowa.

"The feeders selling cattle into that program get an extra $28 per head on average," he noted.

The R.A. Brown Ranch is a family owned and operated business in North Central Texas. Donnell and his wife Kelli manage the seedstock division, but the family business is vertically integrated from conception to consumption. They sell semen and embryos. They market about 450 to 500 bulls a year and 1400 commercial cows. The family owns interests in two different feedyards in the Texas Panhandle with a one-time capacity of 75,000 head. The Browns feed about 13,000 stockers annually.

Five years ago Donnell and his dad, Rob, were instrumental in starting Ranchers’ Renaissance. Just 15 months ago the group launched a branded beef program called Cattlemen’s Collection with the number one beef retailer in the nation, Kroger’s. These stores, Donnell Brown said, have seen a tremendous increase in red meat sales since the launch of this product.

"We raise cows, kids and Quarterhorses," Brown told listeners. "Our mission is very simple. We are continually striving to improve the efficiency of converting God’s forage into safe, healthy, nutritious and great tasting beef to better feed His people. That’s why our family is in the cattle business.

"Our number one goal as seedstock breeders, as bull suppliers," he continued, "is to improve the profits and the sustainability of our commercial customers."

Beef cattle production in the future, Brown told listeners, will be specification-driven. Those specifications will be dictated in large part by the consumer, and the consumer, he noted, says she wants a tender, tasty, lean, convenient, safe but affordable product.

Some people, Brown acknowledged, will utilize the technology and some will continue to do things the way they’ve always done them.

"We need to take the information that is available to us and turn it into knowledge so we can make knowledgeable decisions, and knowledgeable decisions just mean we make more right decisions than wrong."

He reminded listeners that producers can only manage what they can measure.

"That’s why it’s important to utilize the EPDs to identify the genetics that will increase profits," he explained.

"My grandfather used a lot of visual analysis. He focused on eye appeal. He focused on cows that worked and produced every year. He looked at actual weights.

"My father started adjusting those weights to a constant age so he could compare those animals with ratios. With those ratios he made EPDs. He used tools like artificial insemination, embryo transfer. His focus was on growth and increasing the amount of product per cow."

Today R.A. Brown Ranch uses selection indexes to help their customers select the bull that best fits their customer’s cows to produce a calf that best fits their marketing plan.

"We let the data sort our cattle, but we also put a phenotypic sort on them to make sure they have the right structure. The ones that breed and perform stay in the program.

"We’re utilizing more genetic tools with a focus on a total systems approach," Brown continued. "We’re focusing not just on what it takes to produce the heaviest calf at weaning, but rather what it takes to produce a calf that will fit the system," he reiterated.

Brown also reminded listeners that there is more than one target for producers to aim for. For example, there’s the high quality, high-marbling target and the high yielding target. And for each target there is an animal that is best suited for that particular target.

"What we see is that no matter the target, the hybrid animal is continually the animal that fits the target."

Hitting a particular target, he noted, is mostly a matter of adjusting the ratio of English versus Continental blood. If it’s a quality grid, experts recommend 75 percent English and no more than 25 percent Continental. A high yielding target requires more Continental blood and less English.

For the last several years R.A. Brown Ranch has given considerable attention to what they call "planned crossbreeding." Brown is quick to point out that it’s not a new concept at all.

"This part of the world has been using hybrid bulls longer than any part of the U.S.," he said. "What do you think American breeds are? They’re hybrid bulls. A hybrid bull is not a new concept."

The idea, Brown told listeners, is to realize the value of each breed and then use them in a designed rotational crossbreeding system to produce an end product that hits a particular target.

"The reality is that hybrid lines of cattle produce very uniform offspring," Brown said. "Researchers at Clay Center have discovered that the more breeds you have in a composite, the more uniform the cattle remain from generation to generation.

"That goes against my cowboy logic. I didn’t believe it at first," the speaker admitted, "but now after 12 years of research with our own hybrid line, I believe it."

Other competing proteins such as pork and poultry, he reminded, have long been using hybrid lines. According to one industry expert, 67 percent of the seedstock in the pork industry come from hybrid males and females. In the poultry industry that percentage is 99.5 percent. These industries, as a result, have a significant advantage over the beef industry, Brown said.

He touched briefly on the beef industry’s current marketing system.

"Over the past 10 years the majority of the cattle have been sold on the average, but that is slowly but surely changing. Our family made lots of money by buying mismanaged, sorry cattle and upgrading them to average," Brown told listeners, "but we don’t buy them anymore because we have more cattle selling on a value-based system where the good cattle get a premium and the bad cattle get discounted.

"Over the last 15 months, Cattle-Fax has seen the widest spread for cattle of the same weight. That’s called value-based marketing," he insisted. "The question is do we have the right genetics to compete? The reality is that none of us have to change, but we will have to compete with those who do."

Brown concluded by reminding listeners that lots of trails lead to the watering hole.

"Just remember that the main objective is to get a drink," he said.

During the discussion and answer session, a question was posed about what a producer owning 100 cows or fewer can afford to pay for a commercial bull.

"I don’t see how you cannot afford to own the best bull you can own, particularly if you’re trying to make an investment on a 100-head cow herd," Risinger told the group. "The main way to measure that is in pounds of calves at weaning."

Brown agreed.

"Some people say bulls are a cost. I want to challenge that thought. I would say that bulls are an investment," Brown said. "You can buy good bulls that will increase your profits and you can buy inferior bulls that will cost you lots of money.

"I heard a guy say one time that everyone buys a good bull and pays for it. Everyone pays for a good bull whether you reap the benefit by owning him or if you pay for that bull with less weight and less value for your calves.

"The customers who study their lesson the hardest," he continued, "who make the most profitability with our bulls, are those who buy the best bulls — those averaging $2500 to $4000."

He also pointed out that the longer one owns a bull, the more risk one takes, but also the more the return.

Nichols offered these comments:

"We don’t believe in letting our buyers set the price. We set it at what we think is a fair price.

"We believe that it is very unprofessional to auction off breeding stock," Nichols continued. "The people we buy stuff from don’t auction their goods off. They price it and we buy it.

"Furthermore, we have a motto at our place — sell the bull that the customer needs, not the one they want, because if the bull doesn’t work out they blame us, and if it works out they remember how smart they were for buying it."

At Nichols Farms, 13-month old bulls last year sold in three different price ranges — $1750, $2250 and $2750, and the overall average was $2500.

Chapparosa’s Tommy Haeglin told listeners that he doesn’t mind paying $5000 to $8000 for a good commercial bull.

"When I first came to the ranch, weaning weight on a seven month-old calf averaged 450 pounds. Last year, even with the drouth — and we feed very little — our steer calves averaged a little over 700 pounds and the heifers 640 to 650 pounds. So if you go back to the pounds difference in four or five years, that $7000 bull is pretty cheap," Haeglin said.