The Angus Journal is a monthly magazine known for in-depth coverage of American Angus Association programs and services; the Angus business; herd management techniques; and advertising reflecting genetics herd philosophies.
Issue link: http://angusjournal.epubxp.com/i/435083
January 2015 n ANGUSJournal n 119 mature weight, heifers are developed on grazed forage primarily, including Bermuda grass, ryegrass and fescue pastures. Heifers are supplemented as necessary with byproduct feeds such as soy hulls, corn gluten, peanut skins, candy byproduct, cottonseed and cotton gin trash. The choice of byproduct is driven by price and availability. For years, all Collins heifers received a reproductive tract examination. Over time, fewer and fewer heifers were eliminated on the basis of unsatisfactory reproductive tract scores. In recent years, only a cross-section of heifers are examined and scored. Following their frst breeding season, heifers are evaluated for pregnancy by ultrasound. Heifers that will go into the Collins herd are chosen from those that conceived early — within the frst 20-25 days of the breeding season. Fertility, as indicated by early conception, is a key factor in identifying the "keepers." When heifers are preg-checked, the gender of embryos also is determined. Provided other criteria are met, Collins prefers to keep heifers carrying female calves. The GeneMax® Focus™ genomic test was applied to Collins heifers for two years and, in 2014, GeneMax Advantage™ was used. Test results assign scores and rank heifers on the basis of three multi-trait economic indexes: 1. Cow Advantage scores represent maternal traits and rank females for net return, from heifer development through weaning of progeny. 2. Feeder Advantage scores represent the genetics tested females transmit to their calves for net return from growth and feed effciency in the feedlot, as well as from carcass merit. 3. Total Advantage scores represent a combination of Cow Advantage and Feeder Advantage scores. Collins says DNA testing complements the operation's female-focused selection practices and other selection tools used, including the Reputation Feeder Cattle Genetic Scorecard developed by Verifed Beef LLC. Collectively, says Collins, these tools allow for more confdent predictions of which heifers have the most brood-cow potential, and will be most likely to transmit important production traits to future offspring. Finding the right ones to spend money to develop Noble Ranch, in eastern Colorado, is also testing females with GeneMax Advantage. Testing was recently completed for bred heifers born in 2013 and the 2014 heifer calves. Fourth-generation rancher Ryan Noble relies on EPDs to aid sire selection and says he sees DNA testing of commercial heifers as an aid to female selection. "Never before has keeping a replacement heifer been such a large investment in capital. If we are going to spend the money on a heifer, let's spend the money on the right ones. We feel the (GeneMax) program will help us to stack the deck with high-indexing females and take more of the guesswork out of keeping replacements," explains Noble. "If you start with a weaned heifer calf this fall, it will be 2017 before you get carcass or performance data back from her frst progeny. I think that spending a few dollars right now to weed out the underperforming heifer is a whole lot better than waiting a thousand days to see how her offspring perform." Noble Ranch manages some 700 cows that are expected to harvest their own forage, from native range in the summer to crop residues in the winter. Typically, the cows graze for more than 350 days of each year. Heifers retained as replacement candidates must represent a balance of economically important traits, and they are scrutinized hard for soundness and disposition. Ultimately, though, heifers must demonstrate early that they will ft within the Noble production system. "We don't cut the heifers any slack. We keep the oldest heifers — more than we really need — and really challenge them," Noble explains. "We run them on cornstalks, with supplemental protein plus a vitamin/mineral supplement, along with our coming 2-year- old cows that have just weaned their frst calves. That way, those young cows don't have to compete with the older cows, and they settle the yearling heifers and teach them how to graze stalks." Noble says the heifers don't gain much more than ¾ pound (lb.) per day during a 120-day period on cornstalks. Compensatory gain comes after that, and on through breeding time, as heifers are fed a high- roughage ration containing an ionophore. The goal, says Noble, is to have heifers on a plane of nutrition that produces weight gain without making the heifers fat. He advises careful attention to balanced vitamin and mineral supplementation. Noble also operates a custom artifcial insemination (AI) business, and breeds close to a thousand outside females annually. After quite of few years of custom AI work, he's seen the products of a wide variety of heifer- development programs. "I've seen heifers ranging from very thin to feedyard fat, and I've come to understand that having heifers gaining weight is what's important. Even if they're pretty green, as long as they are gaining, you'll usually be successful in getting a good percentage of heifers bred," explains Noble. Noble admits that he didn't always develop replacements this way. He once thought it necessary to feed yearling heifers more aggressively to get the maximum number of them bred. However, too many failed to rebreed. "When you rough them through as yearlings, you'll fnd the fertile females that ft the environment. You'll end up with some opens, but they're still worth a lot as feeder heifers. I'd much rather have those fall out early than after we've invested more money in them." Purchasing maternal genetics Some commercial cow-calf producers prefer to invest their money in ready-made replacement females. Their resources might not be well-suited to retaining and making cows of home-grown heifers, so buying bred heifers or bred cows is a viable alternative. Some producers, like central-Nebraska's Kent Hubbert, purchase females in order to maintain a herd of maternal-type cows that CONTINUED ON PAGE 120 "Those older cows have raised a calf every year, even when conditions were harsh, so they are adapted to the environment," says Jim Collins, who prefers retaining daughters of those cows as replacements. "Never before has keeping a replacement heifer been such a large investment in capital. If we are going to spend the money on a heifer, let's spend the money on the right ones." — Ryan Noble "As we rebuild the nation's cow herd, we need to improve its overall reproductive performance." — Rick Funston