Abstract
In recent decades, beef cattle producers have selected cattle for biological traits (i.e., improved growth) to maximize revenue, leading to an increase in average cow body size. However, matching cow size to the production environment would allow producers to maximize productivity and economic returns per unit of land. This may help meet the goals of sustainable intensification, but environmental complexity and varying cow-calf production systems dictates a regional approach. The objective of this experiment was to examine the biological efficiency and economic returns of a Northern Michigan cow-calf system. We hypothesized that biological efficiency and economic returns would decrease with increasing cow body size. Data were collected from a Red Angus cow herd located at the Lake City AgBio Research Center in Lake City, MI from 2011 to 2018 on cow age, weight, and body condition score at weaning, and subsequent 205 d adjusted calf weaning weight (WW), sex, and yearling weight. Biological efficiency was defined as WW as a percentage of cow body weight (DBW). Enterprise budgeting techniques were used to calculate expected net returns from 2011 to 2018 after classifying cows into 11 BW tiers at 22.67 kg intervals beginning at 430.83 kg. Forward-looking net present value (NPV) was calculated using the same tier system, for a 10-yr production cycle with the baseline being a 200 d grazing season. Weaning weight increased with increasing DBW (P < 0.01), but the percentage of cow body weight weaned was reduced by −38.58 × Ln(DBW) (P < 0.01). This led to cows weaning 26.38 kg/ha more with every 100 kg drop in DBW. Expected net returns from 2011 to 2018 did not differ by DBW tier on a per cow basis but did on a per ha basis with a decrease in $10.27/ha with each increase in DBW tier (P < 0.01). Net present value was maximized in the baseline scenario at 453.51 kg DBW and decreased in value as DBW increased. These results suggest that for a Northern Midwestern cow-calf herd, comparatively lighter cows provide a higher economic value on a land basis.
Highlights
Matching cow size to their environment plays a key role in the long-term sustainability of the operation but selection for biological performance indicators may be disrupting this balance
Net present value was maximized in the baseline scenario at 453.51 kg DBW and decreased in value as DBW increased. These results suggest that for a Northern Midwestern cow-calf herd, comparatively lighter cows provide a higher economic value on a land basis
The objective of this study was to model the relationship between cow body size and age on calf weaning weight (WW), yearling performance, cow longevity, and economic returns of a Northern Michigan cow herd
Summary
Matching cow size to their environment plays a key role in the long-term sustainability of the operation but selection for biological performance (i.e., average daily gain, kg/d) indicators may be disrupting this balance. This can be seen by the increase in cow size in recent decades (Johnson et al, 2010; Scasta et al, 2015). Producers have been incentivized by packers to produce bigger, heavier carcasses (Johnson et al, 2010) This may be hampering the long-term environmental and economical sustainability of cowcalf operations if producers have to adjust stocking rates due to selecting for traits which provide shortterm benefits (Miller et al, 2001; Doye and Lalman, 2011). We hypothesized that WW efficiency and economic returns would decrease with increasing cow body size
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