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I was recently at a meeting where the speaker was trying to look at the future of farming.
As part of his presentation he outlined the progress made in the last 30 to 40 years, particularly in the pig and poultry sector.
It really hit home to see how pigs are putting on more weight, doing this more rapidly, and all at the same time as eating less food. Then you look at the chickens and they have made even more remarkable gains.
In the same period there has been practically no progress made in dairy cows and progress in beef seems to be even less.
This got me starting to wonder why this was, and what we are doing wrong in the beef industry. Why are we bottom of the pile?
I believe there is one problem – most of the poor performers are still here and still performing poorly
The easiest way for me to assess this is to look at my own situation.
I have been trying to make genetic progress within my suckler herd for the last 20 years or more, and I can see that positive changes have been made. Admittedly it has been slower than I would like and it’s in a different league to pigs and poultry.
Of course, it’s very easy to make excuses. From when a cow becomes in-calf until you have beef hanging up in the meat factory is at least two and a half years. With a pig it’s six or seven months or in the case of chickens it’s even less.
The difference in turnaround is immense and probably accounts for some of the difference in genetic progress, but we beef farmers can’t just put it all on this.
Best genetics
With the use of artificial insemination and choosing the best genetics that I can possibly find, I would have thought that my progress would have been better than it is.
To assess that, I have taken a good look at my cows. Probably like most other farmers I’m of the opinion that I have a good herd of cows and when I look down the cattle house it reinforces my view on this.
But then I look a little closer and see differences. There are some super looking cows that anyone would be proud of, but the calves that they rear are just average or less.
Every year I work out the weaning percentages and it can be a real eye opener. What I think might be my best cows actually have the lowest weaning percentage. Then some of my worst looking cows have some great weaning percentages.
But why have I been making slow progress? I believe there is one problem – most of the poor performers are still here and still performing poorly.
My issue (and I assume it’s the same for a lot of other farmers) is that we choose our cows by looks and not hard evidence. We suffer poor performing cows because they are pleasing on the eye.
I see it when farmers come to buy heifers off me. No one has ever asked about their performance or the performance of their mothers. Everyone will choose them on looks and looks only.
When there is a choice, the first one that everyone considers is the roan one (either blue or red roan). I think that they have some romantic memories of cows that their father or grandfather had.
The next ones they like are the red and white ones, or the deep red ones. I think that this has something to do with the colour of calf that they are hoping to breed.
Generally, the last ones to be looked at are the black ones, which really puzzles me, but we all have our different notions.
Trivial
The pig or poultry industry aren’t hung up on such trivial matters. They are completely driven by hard evidence.
I think that the suckler/beef industry will have to make some fundamental changes if it is going to benefit from improved genetics. That means making decisions based on evidence rather than looks. There is so much untapped genetic potential within all our herds, and it is time to try and take advantage of that.
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