Raising the “steaks”
Are your cows ready?
By Alvaro Garcia
Identifying the optimal time for slaughtering cattle is a critical skill for cattle ranchers and beef producers, with implications for meat quality and overall profitability. Regularly tracking the height of steers at different growth stages provides invaluable insights for ranchers. It not only allows the early detection of growth irregularities but also ensures that an animal's height adheres to an anticipated growth pattern.
Deviations from this pattern can signal health concerns, nutritional deficiencies or genetic issues, underscoring the significance of early intervention. Moreover, height measurements serve as a key gauge of nutritional adequacy, enabling farmers to gauge their feeding practices. Failure to meet expected height milestones may prompt necessary adjustments in the feeding regimen.
Height also acts as a barometer for frame size, a factor impacting meat yield. By monitoring height, ranchers can also make informed decisions on which animals to retain for breeding purposes and which to cull from the herd.
Frame score basicsFrame scoring in beef cattle is a numerical system crucial for categorizing and describing the skeletal size of individual animals within a cattle herd. These scores hold particular importance in the beef industry, guiding decisions about breeding, feeding, and marketing. Typically ranging from 1 to 9, with 1 signifying the smallest and 9 the largest frame, these scores offer valuable insights into the potential growth and mature size of beef animals.
Producers leverage frame scores to choose breeding pairs that yield calves suitable for specific markets, whether requiring smaller or larger carcass sizes. Additionally, frame scores assist in marketing animals to buyers seeking sizes or types of beef cattle. This information empowers cattle producers to make strategic decisions pertaining to breeding, feeding, and marketing in alignment with their production goals and market demands.
While hip height evolves with age, frame score remains stable. By amalgamating hip height and age, it becomes possible to assign a specific frame score to any growing animal, equipping producers with advanced knowledge of the target slaughter weight. This method simplifies the process to determine when the cattle have attained the ideal harvest weight and ready for market. Tables 1 Steers and Heifers offer frame scores by age and height for steers and heifers.
Cattle typically retain their frame scores consistently throughout their lives, ensuring the predictability of target slaughter weights based on them. For instance, if a heifer has a frame score of 4 at eight months, she will maintain this score at 21 months and beyond. This consistency lays the foundation for accurately forecasting target slaughter weights.
When you have identified the frame score, you can use it to determine the maximum weight the cows should reach to be ready for slaughter. This data equips you with crucial insights into the required weight the cows should attain, optimizing meat yield and maximizing financial returns. Tables 3 and 4 provide the maximum weights by frame score for mature bulls, cows, steers, and heifers, helping you make data-driven decisions tailored to your specific goals and market requirements.
In the beef industry, it's common practice to limit the age for cow slaughter to approximately 36 months. This age restriction primarily centers around meat quality, as beef from older cattle tends to be less tender and possess less desirable marbling. Efficiency in feed utilization is another significant factor, with younger cattle displaying superior conversion of feed into body weight, resulting in cost savings.
As cattle age, the demand for resources increases without corresponding gains in growth, making them economically less viable. Thus, beef producers aim to strike a balance between maintaining older cattle, incurring higher maintenance expenses, and less than optimum growth. Market demand, driven by consumer preferences, heavily influences the ideal age for harvesting, with younger animals typically being the preferred choice.
Recent research conducted by the Scotland's Rural College in Edinburgh emphasized that regardless of breed, slaughtering at a younger age reduces costs associated with feed, bedding, and labor while increasing cattle turnover on beef farms. This approach has the potential to significantly boost farm profits, with data analyzed across various cattle breeds consistently pointing to 12 months as the most profitable age for slaughter.
Slaughtering cattle at this age not only reduces costs but also accommodates increased cattle numbers on farms, further boosting profitability. Furthermore, it contributes to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, rendering it a potentially environmentally friendly option.
Even after cattle have reached their target weight, it's vital to rely on your judgment to ascertain they possess adequate fat cover before slaughter. Body condition scoring (BCS) is a valuable tool for this assessment, offering a visual method to gauge cattle's fatness and confirm they meet the necessary fatness criteria for slaughter. Two scales are employed for body condition scoring in beef cattle: the 1-5 scale and the 1-9 scale, with the latter providing more comprehensive assessments.
Ideally, cattle should fall within a body condition score range of 5 to 7. Scores beyond this range are inadvisable. The closer your cattle approach a score of 7, the higher the meat's grading will be. However, exceeding a BCS of 7 will border on obesity, resulting in excessive fat that will ultimately be discarded during processing.
Quantifying cattle progress by measuring weight, height, and body condition is vital for enhancing efficiency in beef production. While traditional tools like chutes, scales, rulers and measuring sticks have served this purpose well, they present challenges and risks, particularly when dealing with cattle that have been in the herd for an extended period. Cattle can be skittish when weighed due to operator proximity, causing stress for the animals, and posing injury risks for the operator.
Thankfully, modern technology has introduced a game-changing alternative in the form of AI 3D cameras, redefining the way farms manage their livestock. These cameras at the present time are not only calibrated to measure weight, height, and body condition, but also lameness!
This technological innovation offers improved efficiency, minimizes cattle stress, enhances operator safety, and contributes to overall advancements in farm management and beef production.
Garcia is a livestock nutritionist with Dellait – Animal Nutrition & Health.
