Selecting for just one trait can be ruinous in the cow-calf business, but it depends on how that one trait is related to others and how well other traits are kept balanced, according to Dan Loy, director of the Iowa Beef Center at Iowa State University, in a release.
Loy recently led an analysis of the genetic and phenotypic results of a selection program and co-authored a research paper for the Certified Angus Beef brand.
“We decided to single-trait select because the industry doesn’t do that and someone needs to learn, to find out what happens when you do that,” Loy said. The researchers wanted to see what the progress would be for selecting only for marbling over time and determine some of the negative implications might be.
THE STUDY
At Iowa State’s McNay research farm near Chariton, Iowa, in 1996, foundation Angus heifers were selected for marbling, or intramuscular fat, he said. Ultrasound at the start gave way to Expected Progeny Differences, or EPDs, from the American Angus Association.
“Then, over a period of time it still was a selection for intramuscular fat, but using mostly the marbling EPD from the Angus breed to do the selection,” Loy said. “So, they’ve been selected for marbling for 20 years.”
“You can select for high quality, for marbling, and the traits that consumers want currently and still have a functional, effective cow herd,” he said.
THE RESULTS
How this Iowa herd compared with the rest of the country’s Angus across all other traits was mostly average – except when it came to marbling.
The herd has averaged about 57% prime, Loy said. They ran 97% to 98% choice. And he said he believed about 90% would be Certified Angus Beef.
So selecting for marbling can pay off in the long run, say 20 years, Loy said.
With the long-term focus on marbling in the herd, carcass quality is well past choice and on to mostly prime, he said.
“That’s a bit of a re-set in the way most research projects have been written, Loy said.
“I do a lot of work with cattle feeders,” he said. “We may have evaluated whether a technology was negatively affecting carcass quality by its effect on percent choice, but in this case, they are (nearly) 100% choice. So …
“…Prime is the new choice, he said. “And I think as we increase quality of cattle and we start looking at demands of consumers and look at where we’re at and where we’re heading as an industry, you know, I think we’ve moved the goalposts in the beef industry.”
“Basically, if we’re shooting for low choice, we’re B students,” Loy said. “And so we, as a beef industry, I think we want to be the A students.”
As the market rewards those higher grades, ranchers can rest easy that producing better beef won’t come at the cost of maternal functionality in their herds.
CATTLE, BEEF RECAP
Cash cattle traded in the Plains this week at $113 per cwt, down $2 to $6 from last week. Dressed-basis trade was reported at $180 to $182 per cwt, down $5 to $6.
The USDA choice cutout Thursday was up $0.43 per cwt at $207.25, while select was down $0.45 at $201.06. The choice/select spread widened to $6.19 from $5.31 with 83 loads of fabricated product sold into the spot market.
The CME Feeder Cattle index for the seven days ended Wednesday was $133.83 per cwt, up $0.08 from the previous day. This compares with Thursday’s Mar contract settlement of $133.62, down $1.22.