Alan’s Observations…Stockman Grass Farmer…

Here’s a date for genetics enthusiasts to remember: September 13, 2006.

This was the date that the apogee in the swing toward ever larger cattle was reached.

This was the date that Certified Angus Beef announced that it was cracking down on suppliers with too large cattle.

Keep in mind that even with this new restriction, CAB will take cattle up to 1600 pounds in size, so there is still a lot of room to produce cattle that will be grass friendly, but it does mean that the ever-upward progression in cattle size has been stopped.

Cattle-Fax has predicted that the next cattle cycle will be dominated by branded beef companies with very specific production and carcass specifications. This CAB crackdown is just a sample of what lies ahead.

The Angus breed has ridden their reputation of highly-marbled meat into almost complete genetic dominance today, but is that reputation still valid?

In 1960, with the national herd mostly Hereford, it was estimated that over 90% of America’s cattle graded “Choice” at harvest. Today the national herd is mostly Angus and less than 60% grade choice.

This decline has to be due to two factors. One, is a shift to growthy, slow maturing genetics; and two, the routine use of artificial hormone implants.

It is interesting to note that Tallgrass Beef’s cattle, which are not implanted and are finished solely on grass, have a higher percentage of Choice, and the same percentage of Prime as grain-finished cattle.

Tallgrass has also seen the short-legged, broad-chested 1960 beeve have a yield advantage of $600 at retail over the modern beeve.

Whoa!

We now have an animal that grades worse and yields less than the cattle of 50 years ago! This is progress?