1. Beef Cattle Industry

2. Beef cattle industry produces more than 45% of total cash receipts from all livestock products
Decline in consumption of beef is linked to a drop in the beef supply and increasing prices for beef because people think it is high in cholesterol
Very little beef is imported or exported out of the US
Texas and Kansas make up 50% of the feedlots

3. The demand for beef depends on:
the # of people
income per person
changes in people’s meat preferences

4. Advantages for raising beef:
beef use roughages for feed that would be wasted
low labor requirements
small capital investment
low death losses
beef adapt for use in small and large operations
high demand for meat

5. Disadvantages: cattle feeding is a high risk business
not efficient converters of concentrated feeds into meat
takes longer to
increase herd
high capital
investment

6. 3 types of beef cattle production systems:
cow-calf producers
purebred breeders
cattle feeders

7. Desirable conformation of beef animals:
long, trim, deep-sided body
no excess fat on the brisket, foreflank, or hindflank
no extra hide around the throat, dewlap, or sheath
heavily muscled forearm
proper height to the point of the shoulder
correct muscling
maximum development of the round, rump, loin, and rib

8. Ultrasonics:
use of high-frequency sound waves to measure fat thickness and loin-eye area
use when selecting breeding animals

9. Performance testing records are used to:
cull low-producing cows
check % calf crop
select replacement cattle
measure bull productivity
improve herd management
improve the grade of calves produced
increase weaning weight
give buyers more information
provide permanent records

10. Pedigree:
record of the ancestors of an animal

11. EPD (Expected Progeny Difference):
measure of the degree of difference between the progeny of the bull and the progeny of the average bull of the breed in the trait being measured
usually given in a + or – value

13. Feeding Cattle:
Typical roughages: pasture, hay, silage, straw, corncobs, and other crop residue
Corn Silage: widely used as a roughage feed for beef herds
Alfalfa: most common roughage in Midwest and West

14. Coastal Bermuda grass: more common in southern coastal states
Native range grass: utilized in western states

15. Feeding Cattle Cont. Less common roughages:
Oats straw, barley straw, and wheat straw
Cottonseed hulls, peanut hulls, oat hulls, rice hulls
Grasses for pasture hay:
Fescue, orchard grass, reed canary grass, smooth brome grass, Kentucky, bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, timothy, redtop, Bahia, dallies, and Sudan.

16. Feeding Cattle Cont.
Legumes: red clover, alsike clover, sercea, lespedeza, peanut hay, sweat clover, cowpeas, soybean hay
Roughages provide the cheapest source of energy