10. FINAL STARTS - Beef Industry

Question 1

What are the parts of the beef industry? (8)

Answer 1

1. Seed stock operations
2. Cow-calf operations
3. Backgrounding operations
4. Feedlot operations
5. Packers
6. Suppliers
7. Retailers
8. Consumers

Question 2

What are the three stages in beef production?

Answer 2

Stage 1: Cow-calf
Stage 2: Backgrounding
Stage 3: Feedlot/finishing

Question 3

Describe Stage 1 (cow-calf) of beef production (6)

Answer 3

1. Producers maintain breeding cow herds
2. Cows are bred and calves are raised on pasture
3. Calves are weaned at 6-8 months
4. Calves are produced for meat and replacement heifers
5. Cows/replacement heifers remain on pasture during the fall and winter
6. The majority of cattle operations in Manitoba are cow-calf operations

Question 4

Describe Stage 2 (backgrounding) of beef production (4)

Answer 4

1. Backgrounders purchase weaned calves weighing 400-600 lbs
2. Target weight gain is 100-400 lbs during this phase
3. Cattle are then sold to feedlot operators or returned to pasture for summer grazing and then sent to the feedlot the following fall.
4. Most backgrounding in AB and SK

Question 5

What are the goals of a backgrounding operation? (3)

Answer 5

1. Achieve weight gain in a specified time period at the lowest feed cost possible
2. Minimize the negative margin between purchase and sale
3. May utilize compensatory gain

Question 6

Explain feed in backgrounding (4)

Answer 6

1. TMR - 60:40 - forage:grain
2. Typically cereal silage based
3. Grain: cereal grains, by-products, DDGS
4. May proceed directly to feedlot or return to pasture

Question 7

Describe Stage 3 of beef production. (1)

Answer 7

• Feedlot/finishing operations purchase 600-900 lb calves; Calves are fed to slaughter weight.

Question 8

What are the goals of a feedlot operator? (2)

Answer 8

1. Feed animals of different frame sizes, breeds, ages, weights and sexes to a certain end point
2. Minimize the negative margin price between price of calves and price for market animals

Question 9

Describe the finishing cattle diet. (5)

Answer 9

1. High grain: 85-90% grain
2. Grain: typically barley or corn
3. Feeding period: ~ 90 – 150 days
4. Typically slaughtered at ~1200 lbs
5. Challenges: acidosis (no long fiber in the diet), lameness, respiratory disease, liver abscess - Diet management critical

Question 10

What are some challenges and practices associated with overwintering/extending grazing cattle? (3)

Answer 10

1. Overwinter feeding accounts for 2/3 of the costs associated with cow/calf production in Western Canada
2. Increased reliance on low cost and marginal lands to meet forage needs
3. ~two-thirds of prairie producers practice some form of extended grazing.”

Question 11

Why should we extend grazing? (7) Biggest and lowest reason

Answer 11

Question 12

What are some methods of overwintering/extended grazing? (4)

Answer 12

1. Grazing stockpiled grass/legumes
2. Corn grazing
3. Bale grazing
4. Swath grazing.

Question 13

Explain grazing stockpiled grass/legumes. What are some challenges?(4)

Answer 13

1. Forage is stockpiled after early season grazing/haying for grazing in fall/spring.
2. Cheapest
   Challenges:
3. Maintaining nutritional value into fall/winter.
4. Access under excess snow accumulation.

Question 14

Explain corn crazing (5)

Answer 14

1. High energy yielding crop but low in protein so grazed by cows which have lower protein needs.
2. Access even during snow.
3. Provides wind break for animals.
4. Care needed to limit access during grazing to prevent overgrazing and acidosis (strip graze to limit access).
5. Expensive crop

Question 15

Explain bale grazing (3)

Answer 15

1. The placement of bales of perennial hay in a grid pattern on hayfields or pastures for grazing in the fall/winter.
2. Minimum 20ft apart (strip grazed)
3. Effective way to return nutrients to the soil.

Question 16

Explain swath grazing (4)

Answer 16

1. Typically oats, barley, triticale.
2. Harvest at the soft dough stage, placed in swaths until grazing.
3. Need to strip graze with electric fence.
4. Backgrounding cattle predominantly as a high-quality feed.

Question 17

Why is record keeping and benchmarking important in the beef industry?(6)

Answer 17

• Identify productivity gaps
• Make management changes to improve profitability
  1. Reduce the number of open (non-pregnant) cows
  2. Reduce the calving interval
  3. Feed testing
  4. Improve weaning weights
  5. Choose cattle to meet your needs
  6. Calculate the cost of production.

Question 18

What are the types of records that should be kept? (3)

Answer 18

1. Production records
   - cattle inventories, pregnancy rate, birth date, birth weight, weaning weight, weaning rate, pounds weaned per cow exposed, death loss, culling rate, pasture or feed usage, feed inventories, animal health, treatment records, treatment rates, etc.
2. Operational records
   - overhead, unpaid labour hours
3. Financial records
   - expenses revenue assets, liabilities, etc

Question 19

What is benchmarking?

Answer 19

Comparing one’s own operation numbers (productivity and financial) against other farms with similar enterprises (regional or provincial average)

Question 20

What are “GOLD” indicators in benchmarking? (4)

Answer 20

1. Growth,
2. Open cows
3. Length of calving season
4. Death loss of calves.

Question 21

What is a breed? What are common characteristics? They breed true:

Answer 21

1. Group of domestic animals deemed so by breeders.
2. Common characteristic traits
   - Production
   - Appearance
3. They breed true:
   - Will appear in successive generations

Question 22

Describe traditional British Breeds of cattle and give examples (7)

Answer 22

1. Developed to produce beef on pasture
2. Tend to be ‘early’ maturing
3. Relatively small to medium framed
4. Good mothering and foraging ability

Examples:
1. Aberdeen Angus
2. Hereford
3. Shorthorn

Question 23

Describe Exotic breeds of cattle and give examples (3 + examples)

Answer 23

1. Introduced to North America in the late 1960s and early 1970s
2. Late maturing
3. Larger frames that tend to fatten at heavier weights

Examples
1.Charolais
2. Simmental - higher milk production
3. Limousin - higher milk production
4. Maine-Anjou
5. Piedmontese
6. Romagnola
7. Blonde d’Aquitaine - double muscled
8. Gelbvieh
9. Belgian Blue - double muscled

Question 24

Name some other beef breeds.

Answer 24

◦ Murray Grey (Australia)
◦ Hays Converter (Canada)
◦ Canadian Speckle Park (Canada)
◦ Brahman (Indian breeds)
◦ Beef Master (Hereford, Shorthorn, Brahman)
◦ Santa Gertrudis (Shorthorn, Brahman)
◦ Brangus (Brahman, Angus) - retain heat as brahman but keep weight gain as angus
◦ Texas Longhorn (Spanish)
◦ Galloway (Scotland)
◦ Scotch-Highland (Scotland)
◦ Welsh Black (Wales

Question 25

Explain the beef store (6)

Answer 25

1. More than 50 million acres of pastureland in Canada.
2. Beef producers manage vast tracts of grasslands which:
   - Protect marginal lands from tillage and erosion
   - Remove carbon from the air and store it in soil (carbon sequestration)
   - Provide habitat and promote biodiversity
3. Beef cattle turn inedible forages ->high quality protein