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From the Spring 2018 Informer

Isa Heifer Captures Top Spot in Feed Efficiency Test

By Lorenzo Lasater, President

Isa Beefmasters, LLC, of San Angelo, Texas, is proud to announce that one of their Beefmaster heifers, L Bar 7102, recently won the Fall 2017 Efficiency Test at the Genetic Development Center in Navasota, Texas. She had the highest Efficiency Index among 335 animals of 17 different breeds.

Gustavo Toro, Manager at the Genetic Development Center, awarded L Bar 7102 the MVP (Most Valuable Performer) trophy of the test. According to Mr. Toro, “On top of that Isa Beefmasters had four of the top ten animals by Efficiency Index and 6 of the top 11 animals for Residual Feed Intake (RFI). Congratulations to Isa Beefmasters for the outstanding performance of their animals.”

Feed Efficiency is the talk in the beef industry right now. According to the GDC, “It’s no mystery the public wants ranchers to produce more environmentally efficient animals, but just as important is that rancher’s ability to stay profitable. Drought, diminishing land resources and feed costs are all factors that point to the need to develop more efficient and profitable cattle.”

The Genetic Development Center test is a 71-day gain test conducted on Growsafe Technology feeders, which measure each animal’s Individual feed intake. This revolutionary technology allows us to go beyond just assessing what an animal gains in a defined period but also what they consumed to make that gain. More information can be found at www.geneticdevelopmentcenter.com.

Isa President Lorenzo Lasater, the third generation of his family raising Beefmasters said, “This was the first time we had an opportunity to test a set of cattle using the Growsafe Technology, so I was hopeful but nervous going in. To have outperformed so many cattle in so many competing breeds was a wonderful validation of our cattle selection efforts over the past 80 years. My grandfather established a balanced approach through the Six Essentials, and the payoff is cattle that are optimal in all phases of their productive lives—whether that be fertility, efficient gains, foraging, maternal ability, longevity or carcass quality.

L Bar 7102 is a daughter of Escalade, one of Isa Beefmasters’ top semen sires in partnership with Dbl D Bar Ranch of Industry Texas. The bull is currently owned by the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. L Bar 7102 will be bred May 1st at 14 months of age. If she breeds successfully in 60 days, she will join her mother in the herd.

For more information on Beefmasters and the Isa Program, please contact Lorenzo Lasater directly at (325) 656 9126.

From the Spring 2018 Informer

Technology guides improvements in the pasture

by Lorenzo Lasater, President

Technology. This is not word typically associated with beef cattle production. But we might just surprise you. Beef cattle genetic production can—and should be—pretty high-tech.

Isa Beefmasters continuously crusades to improve and validate both our own herd and the Beefmaster breed. We are confident the cattle are high-performing and efficient, but we must demonstrate these strengths to the industry and strive for continual advancement.

One of the many things that makes Beefmasters unique among beef breeds is that they were forged through performance testing. Breed founder Tom Lasater, considered by many to be the father of performance testing, began systematically weighing his calves in 1936. This undertaking was unheard of at a time when cattle were still sold by the head. He knew that weight was a critically important component of cattle profitability. Amazingly ahead of his time, he also understood that how efficiently an animal achieved that weight was critical.

Isa Beefmasters continues the tradition of performance testing today. We are in the middle of testing our 65th set of Beefmaster bulls, which will sell at our annual sale on October 6, 2018. Our sale catalog contains 53 data points, allowing buyers to select their bulls precisely using an amazing range of performance criteria. Whether the rancher cares about pedigree, individual weights, breed-leading EPDs, grass and feed gains or carcass sonogram, he will find that information in our catalog.

We began using carcass sonogram technology when it first became commercially available in the early 1980s. We have now scanned many thousands of animals for carcass quality. Using this important tool has certainly moved the needle for our herd and is the reason we have many of the top bulls in the breed for IMF (marbling) and Ribeye Area (muscling) EPDs.

Another use of sonogram is pregnancy testing. We can use blood testing and sonogram pregnancy testing to accelerate the identification of open females, as soon as 28 days following the breeding period. This allows us to move open cattle out of the system faster, making more efficient use of our valuable resources.

In addition, we adopted DNA technology when it first became available in the 1980s. It was a natural complement to our commitment to multiple-sire breeding. Multiple-sire breeding means we use our bulls like our commercial customers do: We don’t hand them 25 pretty ladies to breed at their leisure—they have to compete to breed with other sires in large herds. This competition is a key reason that Isa bulls are more aggressive and reliable breeders, feedback we consistently hear from our customers.

DNA today has expanded well beyond sire ID, to genomic enhanced EPDs. We are now using DNA to enhance the accuracy of EPDs. Traditionally, EPDs on virgin bulls have been extremely inaccurate—basically just an average of a bull’s parents. Genomic Enhanced EPDs (GEPDs) allow us to use technology to overlay the bull’s DNA genetic merits with that of his parents to create very accurate EPDs, giving you greater selection confidence in the EPDs you are using.

As we have added EPDs through the years, it has become a bit overwhelming. The addition of indexes has allowed us to synthesize those data points into a meaningful index of our production goals, expressed in dollars. $T, or Terminal Index, is designed for the retained-ownership cattleman, feeder-cattle buyer or packer who is most interested in fast-growing, high-performing steers that will be sold to the packer on grids based on carcass merit. $T is a combination of WW, YW, REA and IMF EPDs.

$M, or Maternal Index, is designed to help ranchers select animals that will make top replacement females. $M accounts for growth, milk production and fertility and considers expected cow maintenance issues to arrive at an economic figure that is meaningful to the cowman. The EPDs considered and factored into $M are WW, YW, Milk and SC. These are balanced against cow maintenance costs as a result of mature cow size and milk production.

Another important use of technology in our breeding program is both Artificial Insemination (AI) and Embryo Transfer (ET). Isa Beefmasters has both fall and spring calving herds, and we synchronize and AI our yearling replacement heifers on the first day of the breeding season each year. This allows us to stack the genetics of our top sires onto our most advanced females to date.

We have also used embryo transfer to expand our numbers and propagate outstanding genetics on the female side more rapidly than nature allows. Cattle breeding is a frustratingly slow process, with one calf per year the absolute best they can achieve. We need to deploy technology to raise the best possible genetics in the fastest manner.

Isa Beefmasters participates in progeny tests any time they come available. This is all part of demonstrating and validating the genetics we raise. The current buzz in the industry is all about feed efficiency, or what an animal consumes to achieve gains. Following are the results of three recent progeny tests that we had sires participating in:

The USDA Agricultural Research Service recently conducted a feed efficiency evaluation at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, NE. The 18-breed study evaluated 5,606 head of cattle, composed of finishing steers and growing replacement heifers, and they were evaluated for efficiency using ADG during feed intake data collection. The feed efficiency test results ranked the Beefmaster breed second for Average Daily Gain (ADG) and Dry Matter Intake (DMI) in both steers and heifers, and they were far and away the best when the sexes were combined. Eighteen breeds and Beefmasters were the most efficient! The USDA would not share the sire-specific data, but Isa contributed two sires over the life of the project.

We also submitted our herdsire Escalade to a recent progeny test in West Texas and subsequently Kansas. Four Beefmaster sires were AI’d to commercial Angus females. They were taken to a feedyard in eastern Kansas post-weaning for a Growsafe Feed Efficiency Test, which recently concluded. I am pleased to report that the Escalade heifers were the most efficient in the test! The heifers will be returned to the herd in Texas and be tested for production efficiency, while the steers will be fed and slaughtered this year in Kansas. We look forward to seeing the results of both.

A third progeny test was done in partnership with the University of Arkansas Monticello, which has a registered Beefmaster herd. The females were AI’d to three top Beefmaster sires, including L Bar En Fuego, and then cleaned up to Angus bulls. The En Fuego calves had the highest average weaning weight in the test and were 14% heavier than the Angus-cross calves. The females will be returned to the herd and production efficiency traits like fertility and longevity can be measured. The steers were recently slaughtered in Kansas. We don’t have the sire-specific results yet, but the following chart shows how the Beefmaster steers performed relative to the Angus. Beefmasters were both higher marbling and more profitable!

In addition to the progeny tests, we also recently concluded a feed efficiency test on a set of yearling heifers. There is more detailed information on page 1 of this Informer, but the important takeaway is L Bar 7102 had the highest Efficiency Index among 335 animals of 17 different breeds, and Isa Beefmasters had four of the top ten animals by Efficiency Index and six of the top 11 animals for Residual Feed Intake (RFI)!

While technology might seem far removed from the simple environs of the pasture, it should be viewed instead as a critical tool at a rancher’s disposal. More than thirty years ago, Isa Beefmasters realized cutting-edge technology, starting with sonograms and DNA, could have a swift and decisive impact on our quest for cattle improvement. They say knowledge is power, and we were able to harness this information to drive the direction of our herd ever forward. Today, nationwide progeny tests validate our efforts, proving that with technology, ranchers can make better informed decisions yielding better cattle.

From the Fall 2017 Isa Informer

Global beef boundaries blurring

by Lorenzo Lasater, President

You hear it every day: “It’s a global market.” That could not be truer in the beef industry today. The free movement of money, information and hyper-efficient logistics have truly brought the beef industry into the modern age.

We have always had an international flair here at Isa Beefmasters. Mom and Dad ranched in Mexico in the 1960s, and Isabel (our company’s namesake) and I were born there. Dad sent the first Beefmaster semen into southern Africa in 1974. Since that time, we’ve shipped many thousands of straws to over 18 countries worldwide.

The United States is the world’s fourth largest beef exporter, while at the same time the number one importer. How is that possible? Americans prefer high-end cuts like steaks and don’t eat a lot of the variety meats like heart or intestines. This preference presents a problem when we harvest an animal. However, basically we are able to swap the high-demand cuts we want with someone else who has a different shopping list. This allows us to meet our domestic demand and still receive good value for the entire animal at harvest. In 2016, the value of U.S. beef exports was $6.343 billion, which is 14% of our total domestic production.

Things are happening in countries around the world that send ripples through the global beef complex, affecting prices and supply. Recently in the news we saw China (and its 1.4 billion people) opened to U.S. beef. The wealthiest 10% of Chinese residents have a net worth total more than all of Japan. The United States recently opened its market to Brazilian beef, then promptly closed it again last June over safety concerns. Japan recently raised tariffs on U.S. beef, a significant change as Japan is the largest destination for U.S. beef in both volume and value.

In addition, the U.S. is beginning the renegotiation of NAFTA. Mexico is the tenth largest exporter of beef, and many of their feeder cattle come to the United States. Isa Beefmasters proudly provides genetics in the form of bulls, females, semen and embryos to our counterparts south of the border. Mexico is a critically important partner in the U.S. beef chain and our own small business.

A massive drought in Australia (the world’s #3 beef exporter) has lowered their available beef export by 300 tons (that’s a lot of ribeyes!). Countries like the United States are benefitting by filling that gap.

Did you know that the world’s largest exporter of beef in 2016 was India? Did you also know that, last May they banned beef slaughter as inhumane? I am not sure how that is going to work, but it will clearly have an impact on the global market.

Recently, we have had inquiries for large numbers of replacement heifers for Egypt and many thousands of feeder calves bound for Turkey. Ten years ago, such a transaction would not have been possible due to logistics. Now there are specially fitted planes that will haul 1,000 heifers and specialty tanker ships that can handle 5,000 head. The establishing of health protocols between nations and the reduction of corruption have made these types of transactions viable in the modern age.

From the perspective of the Beefmaster breed, we are rapidly expanding our global horizons. Last year Italy celebrated the European Union’s first Beefmaster birth. And last week, Poland’s first Beefmaster was born, with the first in Ireland soon to follow. At the same time, the breed continues to expand and strengthen throughout Latin America: there are currently six established Beefmaster associations in Mexico, Central and South America. In addition, our first Asian outpost is growing well in Thailand, and southern Africa remains a strong and vibrant Beefmaster market.

You can see that occurrences thousands of miles from home are playing a critical role in the prices we receive for our own production. We often can’t affect these at the local level, but by participating with your state cattle association and NCBA on the national level, we can all participate. These organizations are thinking about global trade even when we are not.

The world is changing fast, and the old adage of “adapt or perish” applies to our industry now more than ever. The United States is uniquely positioned to be a global beef power for generations. More importantly, we are producing the genetics the rest of the world is using to improve their own productivity, efficiency and beef quality, ensuring our continued relevance in this great industry.

From the Spring 2017 issue of the Isa Informer

Navigate Road to Success with Six Essentials

By Lorenzo Lasater, President

A dogged pursuit of economically vital traits defines the creation of the Beefmaster breed. My grandfather Tom Lasater crafted the Beefmaster breed under the guidance of his own Lasater Philosophy, or the Six Essentials, an economical roadmap for the selection of beef cattle. Although a common thread in all modern beef production today, his ideas were considered revolutionary—and some said crazy—at the time.

Today when cattle folks visit our ranch to see cattle and discuss ideas, the conversation inevitably turns to the Six Essentials and how we deploy them in daily operations. Although it is simple to profess allegiance to the concept, it is much more difficult to wield it as the powerful selection weapon it is. I thought it might be useful to outline a few of the tools Isa Beefmasters employs to weave the Six Essentials throughout our breeding program and management. While some are so obvious as to appear simplistic, others might come as a bit of a surprise.

Fertility

Fertility is the cornerstone of the Six Essentials. With a fertile herd, all the other pieces of the puzzle fall into place. So how do you build fertility into your cowherd? The first piece is so simple many fail to see it—a defined breeding season. If cattle are expected to raise a calf every year (meaning optimum and maximum production), they must have a breeding season of 90 days or fewer. Gestation length in cattle is 280 days, or nine months. This leaves only 90 days for involution (recovery) and rebreeding. In a breeding season longer than 90 days, a percentage of the females cannot calve annually.

The breeding season, of course, means nothing if you don’t take the next critical step—eliminating from the herd those females that don’t raise a calf each year. If you adhere to a defined breeding season, pregnancy test and cull accordingly, the fertility of your herd will begin to increase each year, as the less fertile are eliminated and the replacement heifers become increasingly fertile.In the Isa Beefmasters herds, we follow a 60-day season. This shorter season balances the selection for fertility while still giving a reasonable timeframe for cows to become pregnant—they basically have as many as three cycles to breed.

For an added twist in the selection of individuals, we emphasize choosing sons and daughters of first-calf heifers. These cattle exemplify early maturity and calving ease, which amplifies the progress of fertility within the herd.

A final consideration regarding fertility—and one that makes Beefmasters completely unique among beef breeds—is population genetics. We breed our cattle in multiple-sire herds, meaning our bulls must compete to breed, just like they will in our customers’ commercial beef operations. We began using DNA for sire identification more than 20 years ago, when it first became commercially available. This information gives us the incredible luxury of employing population genetics and still knowing who the sires are. There is a tremendous variation in libido and breeding effectiveness among bulls. We want to identify those dominant breeders and propagate their fertile genetics.

Weight

Weight seems obvious: Cow-calf operations sell pounds of beef, so more is always better, right? Actually, no! Weight is a delicate balance, and we strive to produce optimum—rather than maximum—weights in cattle.

Extremely growthy cattle, Beefmasters easily move the needle for weight, which is a highly heritable genetic trait. We measure and select for weight in many ways: We take weaning and yearling weights and track the corresponding EPDs for both. In the Isa Beefmasters Bull Performance Test, we put all our developing bulls through both grass and feed gain tests. If we select the heaviest and highest gaining bulls in both those phases, what will happen over generations of cattle? They get bigger!

Large females require more maintenance and have difficulty rebreeding under tough conditions. We ranch in low-rainfall, semi-desert country, where conditions frequently are tough. So I constantly strive to balance optimum weight with performance, while trying to moderate extreme growth by selecting for type rather than pure weight. Tom Lasater called this selection for type conformation, the next of our Six Essentials.

Conformation

Simply put, conformation refers to the visual appraisal of a live animal with regard to carcass merit and production efficiency. We critically examine animals for thickness and muscling, structural correctness, appropriate size and masculinity or femininity. Also especially important is freedom from structural or genetic cosmetic defects, for example a crooked nose, post legs, poorly formed testicles, long sheath, weak back, etc. Fleshing ability also falls under conformation. We deem a cow lacking if she is in poor condition relative to her peers.

Milk Production

We select for milk production in a couple of basic ways. It is important to note that, once again, we strive for optimum production. Too little milk and calf weight and quality suffer; too much milk and the energy required to produce the excess is stolen from other areas, such as the cow’s own body condition or reproduction.

The first and most obvious way of measuring milk production is examining weaning weight. If you are trying to reduce cow size, you can dig a little deeper by figuring what percent of a cow’s body weight her calf represents at weaning. A cow weighing 1000 pounds and weaning a 600-pound calf is much more efficient than a 1500-pound cow weaning the same calf. Milk EPDs also reflect her genetic ability to produce milk.

Another simple tool for managing milk production in the pasture is to identify and eliminate any cow that raises a poor-quality calf, an indicator of low milk and/or poor mothering ability. It goes without saying we must eliminate any dry cows and those that orphan their calves.

Hardiness

Hardiness refers to the animal’s ability to thrive in difficult conditions with low maintenance costs. Beefmasters absolutely dominate other cattle breeds in hardiness, which is one of the reasons for their popularity in many cattle regions world-wide characterized by harsh climates (desert, tropical, hot, humid) and low infrastructure. If you can’t easily buy cow feed, you need cows that can survive without!

Disease and insect resistance also fall under the hardiness umbrella. Beefmasters enjoy an innate “wellness” that stems from many generations of not being pampered. Tom Lasater quit using insecticides decades ago, with the theory that some cattle are more naturally resistant to parasites than others. He believed that cattle with lower resistance would fail to rebreed and, thus, remove themselves from the herd. Over many generations, this self-sufficiency will impact the herd’s genetic resistance to disease and insects significantly.

So how do we select for hardiness? Already we have discussed eliminating poor doers, such as thin cows or orphan calves and their mothers. Management also plays an important role. We all enjoy being good to our cattle, but we also must be mindful of the economics of pampering cattle, which has both a financial and genetic cost. If you pamper cattle too much, you allow less desirable individuals to remain in the herd and therefore lose genetic traction. Forcing cattle to succeed regardless of their conditions improves the ingrained hardiness of your herd most rapidly, allowing you to see which ones rise to meet the challenge and which ones fail.

Disposition

Gentle cattle handle better, breed better, feed better, slaughter better and generally are nicer to spend time with than wild, nervous or ill-tempered cattle. We select for disposition by teaching cattle good manners when handling them and also by not tolerating bad behavior. We have all seen the wild cow teaching her young calf to act the same way. Part nature and part nurture, that behavior does not belong in our herd. You’ll find that if you eliminate the worst offenders, the rest of the cattle quickly settle down.

One other concept I’ll discuss under disposition is intelligence. I truly believe, and have seen it verified many times by others, that Beefmasters are smarter than other breeds. They are calm, responsive and almost eager to please. We have all had the experience of trying to put a herd of cattle through a gate. It always takes a calm and reasonable lead cow to start the flow in the way we are asking. We hope to propagate those pleasant, intelligent dispositions in our cattle.

A simple and effective roadmap, the Six Essentials guides us to economical cattle breeding and management. Incredibly, these tools are not limited to Beefmasters but can be applied to other types of cattle, or even other types of livestock. Success with the Six Essentials simply requires a willingness to work with nature to hold cattle accountable. Reaping both financial and genetic rewards more than justifies the extra effort.

From the Fall 2016 issue of the Isa Informer

Russia warming to Beefmasters?

By Lorenzo Lasater, President

Editor’s note: The following excerpt comes from an email inquiry we received from a Russian cattle producer who was interested in Beefmasters. Included below are the opinions he received from a local operator regarding the breed’s viability and then my subsequent response. I thought I’d share this exchange since it sheds light on some common misconceptions regarding Beefmasters in colder climates.

Email from Russia:

“… [Beefmasters are] not for cattle production in Bryansk or the neighboring regions. They are a composite breed of Brahman, Hereford and Shorthorn. They can be well suited for warm climates of the southern U.S. They usually have about 3⁄8 Brahman influence, similar to the Brangus and Santa Gertrudis. If they are good cattle, they can gain well in the feedlot, but their marbling will be low.”

And my answer:

Thanks for your response. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share a couple things about Beefmasters that may surprise to you.

Beefmasters are typically thought of as warm-weather cattle, but they actually do very well in all but the extreme northern climates. My grandfather, Tom Lasater, founded the Beefmaster breed. He moved the Foundation Herd to the state of Colorado in the 1940s, where they have lived since. I have attached the average temperatures for both nearby Limon and Bryansk (see right), and you will see they are amazingly similar. In the winter, eastern Colorado endures cold temperatures, frequent snow and lots of wind. We also have many Beefmaster breeders in other colder U.S. states, such as Nevada, Oregon, Montana and Wisconsin.

Another critical point is that I assume you would be initially AI’ing to adapted “cold weather” cows such as Angus or Kalmyk. The 50% hybrids from this mating would have no trouble at all being raised in your climate.

Beefmasters originally were created from 50% Bos Indicus (Ghir and Guzerat from India, Nelore from Brazil) and 50% Bos Taurus (25% Hereford, 25% milking Shorthorn). One important distinction is that the Bos Indicus influence comes from three different breeds, not from the modern American Brahman. In fact, the Brahman was developed from many of the same strains at roughly the same time.

The most unique aspect of the Beefmaster breed is selection. My grandfather closed his herd to any outside genetics in 1937. It is thought to be the oldest closed herd in the world today. Nearly 80 years of continuous selection by a clearly defined philosophy has resulted in a homozygous Beef breed. It retains traits from each of the parent breeds, but through selection has developed a unique and wondrous animal unto itself.

The main difference between Beefmasters and the other breeds you mentioned is that Beefmasters are a 5⁄8 x 3⁄8 hybrid. This means they can be continually recreated from the parent breeds, which are also continually evolving, yielding much less consistency. There is also a good deal more heterosis in prepotency from a three-way composite than and two-breed hybrid.

Now to your final point: marbling. Beefmasters are not thought of as heavy marbling cattle. If that were the only target, we would just use Angus. But in the U.S., we find our profit in a myriad of factors, many of them more important than marbling alone.

Beefmasters grade acceptably well, especially when crossed on a fattier breed such as Angus, which is a very typical cross for our customers. In my brochure, you will find some of the numbers relating to feeding and carcass performance of our genetics.

The qualities Beefmasters bring to the cattle-feeding segment are rapid gain, efficient conversion, long-feed efficiency without getting too fat, and a low incidence of sick and death loss. Hanging on the rail, they provide acceptable grade (marbling) with higher yields (more beef, less fat), and a low incidence of cull carcasses. In the U.S. our industry is struggling with the huge overproduction of wasted fat due to the heavy Angus influence. We are striving to raise genetics that will produce lean, yet tender, and consistent beef.

The real magic, though, happens on the ranch, which explains why commercial operators throughout the world use Beefmaster genetics. You will find Beefmaster females to be much more efficient females for low-cost production. They are thriftier and hardier than other breeds and make wonderful mothers. While many in the industry take a discount for terminal-cross females, our customers place a much higher value on the replacement females than the feeder steers. The former is a factory—the latter a commodity.

That’s probably more than you ever wanted to know about Beefmasters, but I appreciate your reading it!

From the Spring 2016 issue of the Isa Informer

Sustainability: Truths that stand, myths that fail

By Lorenzo Lasater, President

Sustainability is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. It is defined as “the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and hereby supporting long-term ecological balance.” This definition seems like an awfully good description of what cow-calf producers do every day. Sadly though, there are those who accuse our industry of being unsustainable. This claim has less to do with reality than the hidden agenda of groups who wish to end production agriculture. But perception can become reality in the minds of an uninformed public, so ranchers have a duty to stand up for themselves and share the wonderful story of grass-based ranching.

At Isa Beefmasters, cows spend virtually their entire lives on native pasture. We occasionally supplement nutrition during times of stress, but Mother Nature provides the vast majority of their diet. A cow is a fabulous creature, harvesting energy from the sun, in the form of plants that are not usable directly by humans, to produce tasty, nutrient dense BEEF. And the plants they are harvesting are native perennials which, under good management, will produce year after year using only the rain and sunshine that God gives them. Now if that’s not sustainable, I don’t know what is!

Antibiotics and growth implants are another area of concern to our customers, but often more because of lack of understanding or downright misrepresentation by those who wish to harm our industry. At Isa Beefmasters, cattle are given standard immunizations for disease, just as we immunize children against measles and tetanus. The use of these vaccines has worked miracles in lowering death loss in calves, which is an important step towards sustainability.

In the larger Beef Chain, grain obviously plays an important role. The majority of beef consumed in this country is grain-fed in the final stages of production. But a typical beef animal is two years old or less at harvest and often spends as much as three-quarters of its life on pasture or in fields. One of the real ironies of grain use in agriculture is that it began due to the overproduction of grain caused by the Farm Program, paying farmers to grow crops America didn’t need for human consumption. Faced with tremendous oversupply, ranchers began feeding it to livestock rather than burning it.

Animal welfare is another common catchphrase in the modern lexicon. Any rancher knows we spend each day focused on our livestock’s welfare. If cattle are mistreated, sick, undernourished or deprived of water, they cannot be profitable. Healthy, happy cattle will gain weight, reproduce and raise quality calves. Ranchers love their livestock, much as a city person would a dog, but this relationship generally is not conveyed properly to consumers.

We use simple antibiotics occasionally to doctor a sick animal, much like giving children antibiotics when they have strep throat. Being able to treat sick animals successfully, and prevent illness from spreading, is a critical part of ensuring their welfare. Isa Beefmasters never feeds antibiotics or mass treats animals. This practice is simply not necessary in a pasture environment—and would be cost-prohibitive anyway.

In addition, we never use growth implants (hormones) in our operation. Because we carry our seedstock through to breeding production, any short-term advantage in weight gain is negated over the course of time. My own personal opinion is that the Beef Industry should voluntarily and collectively stop using growth implants. This is not because they are bad for consumers—in fact science has repeatedly proven that they are not. But the buying public doesn’t like the idea, and no amount of science is going to change that opinion. The Beef Industry has more important battles to fight. If we give up their use collectively, no one loses the advantage.

No discussion about sustainability would be complete without a word about ethanol. This biofuel was foisted on the American public under the guise of sustainability. It sounds good right? Burn “renewable resources” instead of fossil fuels. But like many ideas born of good intentions, the program came with a whole host of unintended consequences. To begin with, some studies estimate that it costs one gallon of diesel to produce one gallon of ethanol—so it’s just a feel-good pass-through with no real benefit. Ethanol also completely upended the market prices for livestock grains, which in the end, raises the price for the Beef you love. The high price of corn caused by ethanol also raises land rents, and its higher production massively increases the use of chemical fertilizers and water from aquifers needed for irrigation. In a real twist of irony, ethanol also greatly reduces biodiversity, as huge amounts of croplands are converted to corn production. The point here is that sustainability is not always what some folks would have us believe.

As a fifth-generation rancher (working to raise the sixth), I take offense when people point fingers at the ranching industry. As I’ve outlined above, Beef cattle in America are raised in a very sustainable way. Those who claim otherwise either haven’t taken the time to learn about what we do or have a different agenda, such as ending production agriculture or promoting a vegetarian lifestyle. The point they overlook, though, is that people have to eat. Cattle are “farming the corners”—taking energy from the sun in the form of plants and converting it to nutrient-dense, protein-rich and super-tasty Beef. And this is being carried out on millions of acres of land not useful for other types of agriculture, especially farming. That is pretty darn sustainable, and I am proud to be a part of it.

From the Fall 2015 issue of the Isa Informer

50 Shades of Beefmasters

By Lorenzo Lasater, President

People unfamiliar with Beefmasters often wonder about the lack of a defined breed color. Beefmasters are commonly thought of as red cattle, but there are folks breeding blacks, duns, paints and everything along the spectrum. While I don’t necessarily agree with this because it hurts our credibility in the commercial bull market, I believe breeders should be free to select the cattle

Many breeds are identified initially by their coat color. Angus are distinctively black, Charolais white and Santa Gertrudis cherry red. Longhorns are wildly painted, and Belted Galloways prove there is no limit to what we can achieve through color selection. Breeders obviously attained this incredible variation through the expenditure of genetic progress, but at what cost? Each characteristic we select for takes generational time, and often moving the needle for one trait comes at the expense of another.

To understand the color conversation in Beefmasters, we need to go back to the beginning. Actually even before that. The Hereford component in the breed came from a herd of 20,000 Hereford cattle developed by my great-grandfather, Ed Lasater. The cattle were selected specifically for having red coloration around the eyes, which protected them from sunburns around their eyes. Those burns can lead to eye cancer, to which Herefords are particularly susceptible. Even today, if a Beefmaster cow has a white, blaze or mottle face, there will almost always be red around the eyes, a throwback of more than 100 years to Ed’s selections. That is the power of genetics!

As my grandfather Tom Lasater was developing Beefmasters, he simultaneously developed the breeding philosophy we know today as the Six Essentials. These unique guiding principles separate Beefmasters from others, and BBU’s mission statement shows the importance they hold to Beefmaster breeders:

BBU’s Mission is to enhance the breeder’s ability to raise and promote cattle based upon the founding Six Essentials. Disposition, Fertility, Weight, Conformation, Hardiness and Milk Production.

The core concept underlying the Six Essentials is that breeders select cattle only for traits of economic value. This excludes the selection for aesthetics, including color. This revolutionary concept occurred at a time when most breeds were developed with an aesthetic or purpose in mind, such as size, double muscling, heavy milking, draft work, etc. This focus was usually coupled with selection for color.

The innovative step Lasater took was selecting just the good cattle, even if their hair coat was undesirable. My grandmother Mary Lasater’s famous quote on this subject is “hide color doesn’t matter when the T-bone is on the platter.” Now I can assure you Lasater would have much rather just selected the pretty red ones, but he instinctively knew that some of the genetics his developing breed needed would be found in the paints, brindles or blacks.

Throughout his career, Lasater never used color for selection, and generations of breeders adhered to this concept. As a result, Beefmaster breeders collectively soaked and imprinted all the important genetic traits for efficient Beef production into the breed. There are other breeds that were developed around the same time that made color a priority, and they paid dearly for it in one or more of the Six Essentials (think Fertility and Disposition).

Fast-forward to the modern U.S. beef industry: The commercial sector rewards uniformity of both color and type, and the marketplace heavily discriminates against any color variation, especially paints. One of the most heartbreaking scenes I see in commercial calf sales is when some multicolored piece of junk walks in the ring, they identify it as a Beefmaster and then discount it. This is not because it is a Beefmaster, but because that is a quick and easy way to label it.

People often ask me about my position on color. The L Bar herd is mostly red. I have been selecting for red for more than 15 years. The color runs from very light red to deep cherry red. We still have some cattle with white on their faces or bellies, but we have actively culled any paints, blacks, brindles or other off-colors.

In my opinion, my grandfather, father and their generations endured the difficult task of tolerating off-colors. Now, after almost 80 years of selection, I feel we have the luxury of refining and making more consistent some aesthetic traits, such as color and type. While I value slight variation in color, I want my herd as a whole to look red.

As I said in the opening, cattle breeding is a very personal endeavor, and I think people should be free to choose what feels right for them. It is, however, detrimental to the breed as a whole to propagate color patterns that the Beef industry dislikes. All Beefmaster breeders would be better off if we didn’t have to address constantly the distraction that off-colored cattle create.

From the Fall 2015 issue of the Isa Informer

From the archives: Rancher develops own breed

Editor’s note: Ron Wentz in Florida shared this article from 1982 that relates some history even we didn’t know! It ran in the September 10, 1982, edition of The Anniston Star, in Anniston, Alabama.

By Tad Bartimus
Associated Press Writer

MATHESON, Colo. (AP) — One of America’s shrewdest judges of beef steak on the hoof claims cowboys are the dumbest people in the world.

He ought to know. He’s been one for 51 years.

Tom Lasater is a member of this country’s landed gentry, the big cattle ranchers whose great herds and bull-headed grit tamed the West.

He sprang from the sweltering scrub land of south Texas, where his father amassed holdings of nearly 400,000 acres before he lost most of it in the 1920s. When Tom was born, his father, Edward C. Lasater, a onetime gubernatorial candidate in the Lone Star state, ran 20,000 head of Hereford and Shorthorn range cattle and held title to the world’s largest Jersey herd.

But when Edward died in 1930, Tom dropped out of Princeton to become a traveling salesman for the family creamery. He spent weekdays driving dusty backroads on a butter route, then jumped on a horse on weekends to help his older brother tend what remained of the ranch. He earned $75 a month.

In 1933, Tom Lasater gambled on his good name and struck out on his own in the cattle business.

Today the bandy-legged grandfather is boss of 28,000 acres of prime eastern Colorado grazing land. With only three hired hands, two pickup trucks, and a 1949 tractor to help him, Tom Lasater rides herd on 125 miles of fence, a river, 48 windmills, and more than 1,200 head of cattle.

His bulls, cows and calves comprise a unique breed of bovines. They are Beefmasters, a name Lasater patented in 1949 for his own three-way cross of Shorthorn, Hereford and Brahman cattle. In 1954, the U.S. Department of Agriculture officially recognized the Beefmaster as an American Breed.

After the first Beefmasters were developed between 1931 and 1937, the herd was “closed.” There has been no new blood introduced into Lasater’s foundation stock in 55 years.

At 71, Lasater is not a conglomerate or an appendage of some multinational company. He’s a widower who’s raised five sons and a daughter. He’s made money, and apparently enjoys spending it. He’s a gentleman of the old school, a connoisseur of fine art and aged liquor, a man who’s spend his life wedded to the land, appreciative of the growth and renewal that springs from it. He’s ridden many a horse hard, but he’s never put one away wet.

Lasater calls himself “just a cowboy” who roams his vast range in a scuffed Stetson, dusty boots and faded jeans. But under that favorite old hat there’s a brain that combines the acumen of a businessman, geneticist, nutritionist, naturalist and inventor.

He’s created a suspension fence that needs little maintenance and fewer posts than the average range fence; he’s come up with special high-protein food pellets designed specifically for his herd; he’s initiated systematic performance testing of bulls, and he’s banned all hunting and poisons from his land because “ever since the white man threw the Indian off, it’s been horribly mistreated.”

Lasater only half-jokingly maintains that his peers are “the stupidest people in the world” because they consistently refuse to recognize Mother Nature and their own collective clout.

“Ranchers carry the biggest stick in this country because they’re food producers, and everybody’s got to eat,” says Lasater.

“And everybody else has a union except us. We could sit down and work out a live-and-let-live deal with Mr. Safeway and Mr. A&P and come out ahead, but we don’t. The packer, the feedlot, and the wholesaler all get their cut, but the rancher winds up on the losing end every time.”

Lasater’s breeding and management program is based on the survival of the fittest. When he was first starting out in south Texas, he wrote to stock shows for the scorecards on prize-winning cattle.

“I discovered that 90 percent of the characteristics for which our leading shows were judging cattle had nothing to do with the efficient production of beef,” he recalled. “I sat down and listed what I thought was essential in a good beef animal. I boiled 25 traits down to six. There’s no way to get along without any one of them.”

Those characteristics, which have been emphasized in the Beefmaster herd, are: disposition, fertility, weight, conformation, hardiness and milk production. If any one of Lasater’s animals fails to become gentle enough to eat out of his hand, or doesn’t drop a calf according to schedule, or grows up with misshapen hooves, they are culled from the foundation herd.

“It’s a long pull to let the natural breeding selection take over, and it takes many generations to accomplish, but somebody had to start,” says the blue-eyed, chain-smoking stockman. “Perfection is always the horizon, and anybody who sets their goal so low they can reach it is a fool.”

Lasater says he’s always been a man in a hurry, “and everything I’ve done has worked out well if I do it quick. I got engaged on a first date, was married two weeks later, and it lasted 39 years. It took me three days to buy this ranch.

“Life won’t wait for you to make up your mind.”

From the Fall 2014 issue of the Isa Informer

A Golden Legacy:

Laurie and Annette retire after career spanning five decades

What started in 1964 as a dream of ranching and marketing cattle grew into an illustrious career spanning 50 years with three generations of ranchers: Laurie and Annette; their children, Lorenzo and Isabel; and now five grandchildren.

With a goal of establishing the Beefmaster breed in Mexico, Laurie and Annette moved there with their wedding gift of 35 Beefmaster cows and two herd bulls to a one-pasture lease. In 1966, they organized their first bull sale in Múzquiz, which was “the bull sale nobody came to,” so they quickly adapted to selling cattle via private treaty. During their 10 years in Mexico, they established a Beefmaster herd on Rancho Santa Cruz, located in the Sierra Madre mountain range near Múzquiz, Coahuila, and today Beefmasters are Mexico’s largest breed registry.

In the early 1970s, Laurie and Annette relocated to San Angelo, Texas, to pursue the feeding and marketing of cattle. Their concept of marketing Beefmaster bulls evolved into annual—and, for a few years, even semiannual—auctions. They have sold more than 17,000 females and 20,000 bulls, and this year marks their 53rd bull sale! In addition to selling hundreds of bulls and females private treaty each year, they also focused on the introduction of Beefmasters into new international markets. Today, they have customers on four continents.

During his 50 years of ranching, Laurie served as president of FBA, as well as director of BBU, Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers and National Cattleman’s Association. He is also a stockholder and former director of Nolan Ryan Tender Aged Beef. In 2000, BBU honored Laurie with the Beefmaster Breeder of the Year award.

Throughout the years, Annette ran the office side of the business—doing the books, managing the advertising and keeping the herd registry. She was always the practical and steady voice of the team, keeping Laurie out of more than one wreck.

Laurie and Annette are both elders of the First Presbyterian Church and have volunteered as tutors in local schools and with the Adult Literacy Council. Annette also served as president of the local and district library boards.

Both are published authors: Laurie wrote The Lasater Philosophy Cattle Raising and Tailwind Both Ways. Annette wrote of their 10 years in Mexico in Two to Mexico and penned three children’s books, Lorenzo and Don Clemente, Granddad’s Farm House, and School Days and Book Learnin’.

Today, Laurie and Annette are the proud grandparents of Lorenzo and Leslie’s sons, Watt (19) and Beau (16) and Isabel and JC’s children, Luke (11), Ben (7) and Sabella (7).

Isabel and I would like to honor Mom and Dad for their remarkable run—both in life and in business. They have been incredible parents—loving us, teaching us how to lead an exemplary life and giving us an incredible legacy of ranching knowledge.

From the Fall 2013 issue of the Isa Informer

Still Mothering to the End

Editor’s note: This story was recently shared with me by a friend. It perfectly exemplifies how ranchers feel about their cattle and the remarkable job those cattle do

When we returned home from Kerrville this afternoon, we found Cookie had died. She passed last night or early this morning.

We had had her penned for the last six to eight weeks or so, as it had become too much effort for her to come to feed every night. So, she had her own water, daily bucket of sweet feed, and small barn, without having to work too hard. Not a bad retirement for an old cow.

We purchased Cookie in 1991, one of eight yearling purebred Beefmasters heifers we bought to get us started. She and the others were “culls” from a large registered breeder north of us.

She was bred in 1992 and subsequently produced a healthy calf every year for the next 17 consecutive years. She was a heavy milker and a first-rate mother cow in every regard.

In July, if you will remember, she was in a small trap. We had an abandoned calf last summer and put this (blind at the time) calf in with Cookie for company. Cookie’s mothering instincts kicked in immediately. She assumed the nurturing role in every way possible, except milk, of course, which we provided. She cooed that low guttural motherly coo to the calf, which the calf would come to, and they bonded immediately. She was a mother cow to the end. I pulled her out of the barn area tonight, and to a place about a quarter mile away and in the brush. As I pulled her away and past the other cows, which had been watching the activity with unusual interest, they all fell in behind and followed along. Once I left Cookie behind, the cows remained there with her. Never heard of or seen such a thing.

I’ll sure miss taking Cookie her bucket of feed every night. She was more than a good cow.

From the Fall 2011 issue of the Isa Informer

Decades of discipline show in EPD results

The best tool we have for comparing performance in economically important traits across the breed is EPDs. Using this as our measuring stick, the L Bar herd has far and away the most potential for positive
influence on the Beefmaster gene pool.

The BBU Sire Summary lists the 15 trait leaders in the breed for each of seven categories. In this lofty group, there are:

• 18 L Bar sires.
• 24 L Bar sons and grandsons.
• An L Bar bull or son is #1 in three traits.

L Bar 5502 is the all-time performance leader and the best bull we’ve even raised.

• He is a three-time trait leader.
• He has 21 sons as trait leaders.
• He is #7 for weaning weight.
• Seven sons or grandsons are also trait leaders for weaning weight!

These results are no accident. It comes from decades of a disciplined, balanced approach to performance breeding. The L Bar line-breeding program amplifies the various best traits. The intensive performance testing these bulls go through during their development phase, culminating in the Isa Performance Test, identifies the very best genetics to push towards the future.

The good news is you can tap in to all of this goodness by using L Bar bulls, semen and embryos. There are several lifetimes of performance genetic work wrapped up in these cattle!

Please call us at (325) 656 9126 or email us to learn more about improving your herd with L Bar Beefmaster genetics.

From the Fall 2010 issue of the Isa Informer

Lorenzo currently serves as President of Beefmaster Breeders United. In this capacity, he has written many articles for the Beefmaster Cowman magazine.

Harnessing the Power of Heterosis

Note: I have borrowed a lot of the following information from a great presentation by Dr. Bob Weaber of The University of Missouri at our recent Beefmaster Symposium in Springfield, Missouri. Thanks to Bob for loaning me his slides and letting me share his excellent info with you. (Extra note: the anti-Angus flavor is purely mine.)

Once upon a time the U.S. Beef industry understood and practiced the value of heterosis. Ranchers crossed different breeds of cattle in order to harness the unbelievable (and inexpensive!) power of heterosis in their production systems.

Heterosis, also known as hybrid vigor or outbreeding enhancement, is the increased function of any biological quality in a hybrid offspring. It is the occurrence of a genetically superior offspring from mixing the genes of its parents. Heterosis is obviously introduced through cross-breeding, and it comes at a very low cost since you have to buy or raise two parents anyway.

Today, much of the U.S. beef herd has become a homogenized, largely Angus herd. This was done in hopes of capturing a price advantage. But many ranchers we talk to are now realizing that, while they may have gained a few more cents per pound, what they gave up in reduced weights, decreased efficiency, decreased adaptability and increased costs ate that “premium” up and then some! The real shock came, though, after keeping several generations of replacement heifers, their cow herd began experiencing big changes in production efficiency and profitability.

The chart below shows us what happens when a single breed is bred back repeatedly; heterosis goes from a high of 100% in the F1, to a mere 6.25%—in just five generations!

Impact of Straight-Breeding on Heterosis

Why does this matter? The power of heterosis has the greatest impact on the traits with the lowest heritability, like fertility. Things like carcass traits are highly heritable and can be fixed in one generation using a breed with the desired characteristics. But to move the needle for things like fertility and production efficiency is much more difficult.

What does it mean in terms of production? You can see from the list below that heterosis improves production efficiency at the herd level.

Heterosis:

• Improves calving rate—6% a
• Improves calf survival to weaning—4% a
• Improves WW—8% a
• Improves YW—4% a
• Improves carcass traits—0–2% a
• Significantly improves traits with low heritability
• Improves weaning weight per cow exposed—23% b
• Improves animal disease resistance to BRD and Pinkeye c
• PLUS: Breed Complementarity

It is obvious that heterosis is an important tool in the rancher’s toolbox, but one many in the industry have gotten away from. The second chart shows the various effects of different types of crossbreeding systems on weaning weights. You can see quickly that breeding the same breed year after year eliminates any advantage from heterosis.

Impact of Cross-breeding on Weaning Weights

If you don’t need replacement heifers, you maximize heterosis in a terminal system, like breeding Isa Charolais bulls. There is no more sought-after feeder calf than the Charolais-cross, and this simple system yields the maximum pounds of calf with the fewest inputs.

If you do need to keep replacement heifers, consider using Isa Beefmaster bulls. A three-breed composite offers 63% retained heterosis, while delivering excellent feeder steers (see results in “It’s No Accident …” on the following page) and the best quality replacement females available.

One important thing to keep in mind about Beefmaster is that the three-breed composites, like Beefmasters, retain that heterosis even when rebred, generation after generation. This means you can come back generation after generation with Beefmasters, and the jump from hybrid vigor remains in the cattle at 63%—generation after generation. This is a huge advantage over a straight-bred system.

We understand there is market pressure to raise a single type of calf. But beware where those pressures come from and what their motivation may be. Sure the order buyer and feedyard owner want them all the same, because it makes their lives easier. But does raising them all the same actually make a difference where it matters—in your ranch’s bottom line?

a Kress and Nelsen (1998), b Gregory and Cundiff (1980) , c Snowder et al. (2005a, 2005b)

From the Fall 2009 issue of the Isa Informer

Raising the bar and raising genetics

Lorenzo currently serves as President of Beefmaster Breeders United. In this capacity, he has written a monthly column for the Beefmaster Cowman. We thought we’d share a few excerpts.

I am proud and honored to serve as President of BBU. Beefmaster cattle are a very personal thing for me. As you probably know, the breed was founded by my grandfather, but the beginnings actually go back to herds of cattle developed by my great-grandfather, Ed Lasater. My family has been working on this project for about 120 years, and I am looking forward to my sons (and their kids) seeing it through the next 125 years!

April 2009

Beefmasters are completely unique in that they are the only beef breed with a guiding production philosophy. These principles are called the Six Essentials, and they give us road map by which to maximize production efficiency and improve our cattle. We talk about the Six Essentials a lot, but what do they really mean?

Disposition—Gentle cattle are cheaper to manage, sell better, breed better, feed better and calve easier.

Cull any animal displaying problematic behavior and their offspring because this trait is highly heritable. As a result the herd will be gentle, intelligent and responsive.

Fertility—This is the first among equals and the cornerstone of the philosophy. Cows that do not have a calf every single year are not economically viable. The simple way to select for fertility is to have a defined breeding season, and then cull any female that does not breed in that time—every year. A breeding season longer than 90 days makes it impossible for a cow to have a calf and breed back in 365 days.

Weight—Of obvious importance—ranchers sell pounds. Weight is another highly heritable trait. We select for cattle that produce optimum (not necessarily maximum) weight with minimum input.

Conformation—This refers to the visual appraisal of a live animal with regard to carcass merit. We select for long, trim, well-muscled bulls, and smooth, feminine cows that meet industry demands. Cattle must be physiologically equipped to do their job, with proper feet and legs, udders, and the correct size for their environment.

Hardiness—It is critical for cattle to be able to thrive under tough conditions. Beefmasters excel in calf livability, low death loss, low maintenance costs and resistance to disease and parasites. These things give us an important competitive edge over our competition.

Milk Production—Next to genetics, milk production is the single most important factor in weight. When asked to describe the perfect cow, my grandfather said, “She’ll look like a cow that gives a hell of a lot of milk.”

I mentioned that fertility is the cornerstone, and I have a challenge for you. How long are you leaving your bulls out? I mentioned that if it is longer than 90 days, all the cows can’t physically calve and rebreed in 365 days. The single most important thing you can do to improve your herd is shave a few days off the breeding season. If you are breeding 120 days, shave a couple weeks off this year and a couple next year. It doesn’t have to be too drastic, but the results will be fabulous. The ones that miss when you raise the bar are the ones that are costing you money anyway. We need to focus our selection and resources on those that calve early and raise a good calf every year.

May 2009

A piece of terrific news came from JBBA: Beefmasters had the largest breed representation at the three largest stock shows in Texas in Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. Congratulations to the JBBA folks on a terrific accomplishment!

July 2009

I maintain the Beefmasters are a homozygous beef breed. We have some wonderful traits in common with “eared” breeds, such as heat tolerance, insect resistance and hardiness. But we also share common traits with English breeds (fertility and meat quality) and Continental breeds (muscling and feedlot performance). We need to vigorously object to being labeled as anything other than a Beefmaster, and we need to start proving scientifically Beefmasters’ superiority in the pasture, the feedyard and the packing house.

August 2009

In the final analysis, we are either raising genetics for the beef industry or we are raising pets. While there is plenty of room for all of that within BBU, our problem lies in the fact that we have allowed the industry not to take us seriously. We are often grouped in with Longhorns, which are raised strictly as backyard cattle. That may be fine for them, but I don’t think it works for Beefmasters.

From the Spring 2009 issue of the Isa Informer

L Bar genetics offer performance boost

I thought I might take a minute and explain the history behind L Bar Genetics and why they might be of value to your breeding program.

Folks often ask about our linebreeding program. The definition of linebreeding is “selective inbreeding to perpetuate certain desired qualities or characteristics in a strain of livestock.” Geneticists explain that linebred cattle breed truer because they possess more homozygous or identical gene pairs. Therefore linebreeding is an extremely valuable tool in increasing the consistency, uniformity and prepotency of the herd and their offspring in other herds.

Though closely bred, the L Bar Herd is not a “closed” herd because we typically bring in outside genetics through large groups of females from a single, tightly managed and complimentary program. Over the years, we have added infusions of genetics from the Lasater and Casey herds, as well as Sanders, Musser, Cargile, Vista and, most recently, Cain Cattle Co.

About 15 years ago, we began an effort to transform our cattle, with one of the primary goals being improved consistency of conformation, color, underline, size and type. We strive to select for the optimum performers, while still keeping the size and weight of the herd in moderation. We select for trim, moderate-sized cattle packed with thickness and muscling that meet the demands of today’s bull buyer.

The most important factor in the cow business is, of course, fertility. We breed all females for 60 days, and cull not only those that miss, but also those that fail to wean a marketable calf. We breed our heifers at 14 months to calve at two years, in the exact same season as their mothers. In our bull selection, we place a great deal of emphasis on the sons of first-calf heifers, in an effort to lock in those early maturing, easy-calving qualities.

Performance is of obvious importance in our breeding program. We are very proud to have had 36 L Bar cows receive the coveted BBU Pacesetter award in 2008. This means that she calved at least by 30 months of age, she had at least three consecutive calves with a weaning ratio of 105 or better AND maintained a calving interval of 375 days or less. On the bull side, BBU publishes the trait leaders for each of the 5 EPDs, and there are 17 L bar bulls or sons of L Bar bulls that are trait leaders in the Beefmaster breed. That is 23% of all trait leaders—more than any other breeding establishment!

As you make your spring breeding plans, I hope you’ll consider the boost that high-performing L Bar genetics can give your program.

From the Fall 2008 issue of the Isa Informer

Performance data critical to herd success

Lorenzo Lasater is BBU Vice President and sits on the Long Range Planning and Commercial Marketing Committees. The following article, written by Lorenzo, appeared in the August 2008 edition of the Beefmaster Cowman.

I was asked to write an article about performance, specifically on our impending Total Herd Reporting program. But I thought it might serve us well to go back to the basics a little bit first.

The Competition

We spend a lot of time complaining about the competition, so let’s take a look at them.

The Red Angus Association was built on a performance-only foundation. If you wish to raise Red Angus, you are required to enroll in THR and turn in data on every calf. They have enjoyed steady growth; registering 42,000 calves last year. Following is item number one from their “Core Principles”:

• The policy of the (Red Angus) Association is to discourage the more artificial practices in purebred cattle production … and to place its faith instead in objective tests, consisting for the most part of comparisons within herds of factors of known economic importance and known heritability…. By making this an integral part of the registration system, Red Angus breeders feel that even faster progress can be made toward the ultimate goal of more efficient beef production.
• While I am not sure this fits with “The Beefmaster Way,” you cannot deny that they have staked a credible claim in the Beef Industry. If we think that the Beef Industry is not watching how BBU approaches performance, we are kidding ourselves.
• Why Does Performance Matter?

• To compete with other breeds, we must demonstrate Beefmasters’ excellence through performance data.
• As seedstock producers, we each have a responsibility to examine the relative genetic merit of the cattle we raise.
• This is a business, and we will receive more income, both in the near and far terms, for cattle with performance behind them.
• We can only make good breeding decisions if we know where we’ve been and where we hope to go.

Performance in cattle can mean many things; it could be an animal’s ability to gain weight, a cow’s skill at raising a good calf and rebreeding in a 365-day period, or the type of growth traits a semen bull will bring to your herd. Basically, we are looking for ways to measure the genetic potential of cattle to excel in many different traits, and collecting performance data on our cattle allows us to measure where we’ve been and plan for where we’d like to go.

The old saying goes, “We cannot change what we cannot measure.” This is absolutely true in cattle breeding. BBU’s Weights and Measures program provides a critical tool in measuring the performance of our own cattle and the breed as a whole. If you don’t already have one, call BBU today and ask for a Weights and Measures handbook. It has all the background information to help you be successful with your in-herd performance program. If you have a handbook, but haven’t read it in a while, please do so. It really is helpful.

There are some important changes coming in the way BBU handles its performance data, which will improve the ease-of-use of our performance tools and also enhance the quality of our breed-wide database. An important thing to keep in mind is that all of these programs are voluntary. They are there to help you improve your cattle and the breed as a whole. It is up to you to participate, and the breed needs your help!

Total Herd Reporting

THR is an optional program whereby a breeder pays a reduced, flat fee for every breeding cow in the herd. Included in that price is one registration, for her calf, and one transfer, so you can sell either her or the calf.

I hear about some uncertainty surrounding THR. It is important for everyone to understand that the old system will remain in place, so if that fits your business better, please continue doing what you always have.

Currently, a lot of folks are trying to “game” the system by registering fewer calves, for example, only those they sell. This is an understandable reaction to increased registration fees, but it has very detrimental effects for BBU. It hurts revenue, and it also harms the registry purity and does a great deal of damage to the quality of our performance data.

Virtually all of our competition has moved to some form of THR. There are a lot of reasons why it makes sense, but following are a few important advantages to consider:

• Get an accurate handle on our breed-wide cow inventory.
• Collect performance data on a greater number of calves.
• Collect reproduction info on a greater number of cows.
• Promotes the registration and transfer of more cattle.
• Our performance-minded breeders will pay more up front, but less overall.
• BBU will have a predictable income stream.
• It will be simpler and easier for breeders to submit paperwork.
• It will be simpler and easier for BBU to process the paperwork.

How Does it Work?

It’s pretty simple really; if you are already doing weights and measures, you are basically doing the same thing.

BBU will mail a current cow inventory to each producer. The breeder will update the report and be charged a low, flat rate for each breeding female.

Breeder will submit a birth and weaning information either together or in two stages. The only required piece of data is a weaning weight or a disposal code. At weaning, the breeder can note which calves were culled, steered or turned commercial. These animals come out of the registry.

The Breeder submits a Yearling Worksheet, which can include yearling weight, scrotal circumference and sonogram data.

What will it cost?

The Charolais Association is fairly similar to BBU in terms of size and structure. Below is a comparison of our rates and theirs. You can see it is fairly similar.

The important difference comes in their THR program, where a cow’s enrollment costs $13. Remember, that includes one registration and one transfer and allows you to enroll the calf up to yearling. Let’s say for example a BBU breeder waits until weaning to register the calf and then sells it. The cost for the certificate is $20 and the transfer is $16 for a total of $36. The same transaction under THR is just $13.

Your committees and board are currently finalizing the fee structure for THR, but the industry basically charges between $13 and $15.

A Few Common Misconceptions

“I only want to turn in performance data on the good ones.” This actually hurts the good ones. Performance data is about averages and the individual’s ratio or position against that average. You want them to be compared to the entire peer group, which actually makes them look better.

“I don’t want to register every offspring.” Though THR allows for the registration of every offspring, this is obviously not the goal. You would cull the bad ones and select the good ones as you always have, safe in the knowledge that all the “keepers” will be registered with BBU.

“What if I don’t have scales?” If you can afford to be in the registered business, you can afford to buy a set of scales. Partner with a neighbor, find a used set–do whatever you have to. One of the greatest thrills in cattle husbandry is when those calves come in at weaning and you have the opportunity to weigh the calves and see how you did for the year.

“I don’t use performance data in my marketing or selection, why should I participate?” If you are not using performance data in your own operation, you are missing a critically important selection component. Furthermore, your customers may need to sell cattle with performance behind them. Most importantly, if our breed is to be relevant, we must display performance to the industry.

“Can I enroll some in THR and some the old way?” You have to choose one way or the other for your business. If you use THR, you enroll 100% of their calves and all their production in the program. You will most likely have the chance to switch to or from THR once each year.

Life is Good

The Six Essentials provides Beefmaster breeders the perfect roadmap by which to raise productive, beautiful, profitable and high-performing cattle. Selection for different traits allows us to push our herd in the direction we wish, but we must always strive for balance. It is critically important that we never get caught up in the trap of single-trait selection.

We are blessed to be a part of the greatest breed of cattle there is. Let’s work together to ensure that Beefmasters remain a relevant beef breed and BBU a strong organization for generations to come.