Agricultural News
Various Management Approaches Still Produce High-Marbling Calves, OSU Researcher Says
Tue, 01 Oct 2013 10:56:33 CDT
Stocker operators thrive on growing cattle on available feedstuffs. There's no one-size-fits-all plan. Even if they're aiming for a high-quality end target, Oklahoma State University researcher Clint Krehbiel says that's OK.
"I think the good news is, especially if you have really high-quality genetics, there are a lot of different management approaches that you can use to achieve those high quality grades."
The kind of forage doesn't make as much difference as total gain during the growing program.
"Live body weight going into the feedyard is the greatest predictor of a positive marbling score quality grade during closeout. And, so, the bottom line is trying to get the maximum gain out of those cattle during the stocker phase appears to be important to the final outcome-maybe more so than the type of forage that they've grazed or whether or not we supplemented with starch or some other energy source during the stocker phase."
That may be a switch in philosophy for some. What hasn't changed is the idea that gain in a backgrounding program should never go backward.
"So, we need to make sure those calves have adequate energy so that they're growing at a rate that meets their genetic potential throughout their entire life cycle- And so you're going to be able to capture the highest quality by always having that calf in a positive plane of nutrition throughout the entire production cycle."
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