Agricultural News
Marbling and Reproduction Go Hand-in-Hand
Tue, 30 Jul 2013 15:56:59 CDT
James Henderson of the Bradley 3 Ranch in Texas knows what kind of cattle his customers need. In the big cattle country where they operate, cows must be able to travel for their food, defend their calves against predators and produce offspring that are in demand.
"We've been in the meat business and we've dealt with consumers and we understand that marbling is a very important trait to the consumer. And, so, looking at it from the meat side, that's important. As we've looked at it from the maternal side, we think it's even more important because there's nothing that makes a cattleman more money than a cow that has a calf and stays in the herd and reproduces on an efficient basis. So, if you can keep those two things going--and marbling helps do that--that's what we think makes money."
Selecting for quality can have a positive impact on the cow herd.
"I've said numerous times that marbling may be a more important reproductive trait, maternal trait, than it is a carcass trait. I say that because it's that ready source of energy and that cow can store it up really quickly and she can use it really quickly when she needs to. And those easy, fleshy, easy-keeping cows tend to be the ones with the highest marbling."
Henderson says using EPDs and other breeding tools let anyone fine-tune cattle to fit their business and resources, yet there are still plenty of marbling skeptics, especially among those who run cattle in less-than-ideal conditions.
"I think they've not looked at high-marbling cattle because, again, we're probably in as harsh an environment in Texas as there is and those cattle that are higher marbling are typically ones that survive and rebreed and reproduce in our environment."
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