SUMMER CALVING?

L. R. Sprott, Extension Beef Cattle Specialist at the Texas A & M Center-Bryan, stresses caution regarding recent recommendations for summer calving you may have seen. Summer calving has been touted in the upper Plains, especially the Sandhills of Nebraska, to reduce cowherd wintering nutritional expense. However, Sprott notes that fertility may be reduced in the South with late summer-early fall breeding, due to reduced sperm quality and elevated embryo loss, and weaning weights average some 15% to 25% lower.

NEW VACCINES

AgriLabs has a new line of products for immunization against several diseases. Marketed as the Titanium^TM line, products are available in various combinations for IBR, PI₃ , BRSV, BVD, five-way Lepto, and Vibrio. The products have a claim as the only formulations with "true BVD II protection". Administration can be either intramuscular or subcutaneous, of a low volume (2 ml) dose. Protection is claimed from a single injection, except that BRSV requires boosting.

LOWER BIRTHWEIGHT BUT HIGHER YEARLING WEIGHT ?

It is well known that weights at all ages tend to be positively related, i. e., cattle heavier at weaning tend also to be heavier as yearlings and, unfortunately, at birth. So, selection of seedstock for heavier weaning and yearling weight may result in heavier birth weight, and more calving difficulty. Montana researchers have reported results of sire selection for both below average birth weight and high yearling weight in one closed genetic line (BY)of Hereford cattle, compared to selection for high yearling weight only in another line (Y). After five generations of selection, BY calves averaged 5.3 lb lighter at birth and 29.1 lb lighter at yearling than Y. However, there was no genetic improvement in calving ease, presumably because body weight and internal dimension of BY dams also was lower, so the ratio of calf birth weight to dam weight apparently did not change. However, as a management tool, calving difficulty, especially in first-calf heifers, can be reduced by choosing sires of relatively low birth weight.

VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF BEEF PRODUCTION ?

The poultry and pork industries are becoming almost totally integrated. How likely is this in beef production? Not likely, as it turns out. The head of one of the largest cattle feeding organizations in the country recently stated that the investment needed to totally integrate production for just one 4000-head-capacity processing plant is about $12 billion! This is due primarily to high land investment in cow-calf production. However, more operations are moving into multiple production phases. And integration-like arrangements are increasing in the form of partnerships or alliances between different segments of the industry. For those able and willing to participate, such agreements may become more prevalent. But for most producers, those with less than a truckload lot of uniform, same-sex cattle to market, this will be difficult.