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Texas
Agriculture Archive
October 18, 2002
How to raise high-end heifers
By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
Seven years ago, the Texas Forage and Grassland Council launched its successful performance-tested bull program. Within a few years, the feedyards began contacting TFGC, wanting to track down calves from some of the better performing bulls. That's when a light bulb came on: Why not develop a heifer program for litter mates of the sought-after steer calves, to identify those heifers within a herd that demonstrate superior ability to convert forage to gain, and package those as replacements? Such a program could add value to the heifers and at the same time, improve the state's cattle herd. Good idea? Huntsville cattleman Robert Bruner, a past TFGC president and current director who helped create the voluntary program, thinks so.
"Not only did we say, 'Hey, we need to take the daughters out of them and put them back in the cow herd,' we recognized that there are some people that have these good heifers out in the country, not out of tested bulls, and said, `Let's test those cattle, too," Bruner recalls. "What we're really trying to do is raise that bar on the replacement heifers going out into the state. If we do a big enough volume, we can make an impact. We want to identify heifers making good gain on grass, on forage, and that breed in a short window, and that will be functional the rest of their life because of the forage diet they've been on. It has merit."
Additionally, Bruner, who enrolled his own heifers in the TFGC program's first year, says it allows producers to compete regionally, to become "a low-cost producer of a high quality product."
"A lot of these programs are just for a small part of the industry. This it not the case with the forage-developed heifers. It allows for any size operator, purebred or crossbred, and is done on a predictable group basis. It can do an awfully lot to move the cow herd up, and with not a lot of expense. It only costs $10 to enroll a heifer," he notes.
Dr. Bill Turner, a retired Texas A&M University Animal Science professor, who wrote the guidelines for the program, says the concept benefits everyone, from "gate to plate."
"We're trying to encourage the cattleman to be a full player in all aspects—bulls and heifers. We're striving for properly developed heifers with good genetics. The concept can be integrated where producers can do it at home or at a central test station. If we can make it work, we have helped ourselves. Then the consumer is the beneficiary," Turner suggests.
Creating a value-added market
Both men recognize that many producers are already producing nice forage-developed heifers, but have not had guidelines and documentation in the past to validate heifer performance.
"That's what TFGC created," says Bruner. "The second thing, the heifers are identified for life with an eartag. When someone sees it, they'll say, `Someone thought a lot of her,' so there's value there. We're trying to create value for the guy that has five or 10 head and doesn't have a place to go with them, so he dumps them at the local sale barn and they end up in a feedyard. He doesn't have a way to market heifers. Or it could be that a guy may need to buy five or so heifers. We want to create value from the seller side. With this program, a producer can take a $400 heifer and add $400 in value, and not even have her on the place. It's a form of self help, an avenue for producers."
Important data is collected on the heifers enrolled in the TFGC program.
"We do the ultrasound, ribeye and gain figures, that transfers into calves. It helps us identify the better heifers with something besides sight. Typically, when we say you get to look under the hide, you're looking under the hide of a steer being slaughtered— but in this instance, you're looking under the hide for ribeye and intramuscular fat," Bruner says.
Heifer testing is done at the Tom J. Moore Feed Yard, Navasota, under TFGC direction. Recently, TFGC entered a joint venture with the Beef Development Center of Texas and Ovagenix, located near Hearne, to create a central heifer development program station there.
"BDCT is going to do the data collections and billings. Ovagenix will have the cattle and do reproduction work. Dr. Charles Looney will oversee that," Bruner reports, adding that press information is forthcoming. "This central process has value especially for purebred breeders, and could really fit in on their deal. They can bring the heifers to one particular spot, develop them and have them artificially bred. But Ovagenix can only handle a couple of hundred. We want to go out onto the ranch where cattle are raised, where we can affect the most number of cows, but do it under TFGC guidelines."
Why is the Texas Forage and Grassland Council interested in helping cattlemen raise quality heifers?
"This is a back door approach to make them better forage managers, which is the goal of the Council," Bruner explains.
Later this month, Bruner and Turner are meeting with 27 East Texas Extension agents to promote the program.
"A lot of commercial people don't know it's for them. They think it's for the purebred, registered producer. It's for both, and we are looking for participants," says Bruner.
First heifer sale in November
The TFCG representatives are also promoting the sale of the first group of heifers from the program, to be held in conjunction with the Performance Tested All Breed Bull Sale, Sat., Nov. 9, at Four County Auction Center, Hwy. 159, Industry. The top indexing bulls tested will be offered at 1 p.m. At 10 a.m., 400 head of Tom J. Moore and guest consignors all females with OCV or proper health test for shipment will be sold—pairs, breds, and opens. About 40 performance-tested heifers (Angus and Brangus) from the TFGC Forage Developed Heifer program will be included.
"Our first rule is if she's not pregnant, don't present her," says Turner.
Bruner emphasized that to earn the eartag, a heifer has to breed in a certain window.
"She can be the best looking heifer out there with the best average daily gain, but she will not be in the sale if she doesn't breed when she should," he says. "There's nothing more expensive than an open heifer."
Bruner says the idea is to have special sales of these fine heifers in every region of the state.
"You could sell them everywhere like this, at the salebarn. That's the real goal, to get 100 of these sales going. We'd like to bring 50 or 100 and have a sale at Bryan or Waco. They have sales like this for stockers that have all these shots. No reason why we can't do heifers. It's going to happen within a year, maybe two years," he predicts.
Purpose of the TFGC program
Texas Forage and Grassland Council's 100-Day Forage Development Program is designed to: 1) Promote the utilization of forages in the production and rearing of replacement heifers; 2) Provide a uniform environment in which to evaluate the weight gain of beef heifers on forages; 3) Identify those heifers within a herd or peer group which are genetically superior in converting forage to gain; 4) Promote use of superior heifers in production situations where this trait is important; 5) Serve as an educational and demonstrational program; and 6) Add value to replacement heifers by quantifying forage performance.
According to the TFGC definition, "forage developed heifers" are heifers that graze pastures for at least 100 days. The grazing period is not limited to 100 days, but may be extended depending on climatic conditions for the area.
"It takes high quality forages to develop heifers, to get the weight gain we need, to get them to grow. This program is designed to do that," says Dr. David Bade, Extension forage specialist who also serves on the TFGC board.
Bade says one of the program advantages is that heifers begin grazing high-quality forages soon after weaning and continue their development until they reach breeding age.
"They are in good condition—not overweight—healthy and know how to survive under forage conditions," he suggests.
Participants are not required to sell their heifers, he adds.
The Forage Developed Heifer program is supervised, approved by and under the guidance of TFGC. Also, the facility and procedures used to manage both forages and animals must be approved by the TFGC Committee.
There is an application process. Once approved, a representative of the TFGC Forage-Heifer Committee will meet with the local County Extension Agent and forage producer on the proposed site to plan forage production and other aspects of the program, and to complete the application guideline for the location. Afterwards, the proposal is forwarded to the Committee chairman for circulation and approval.
The forage producer is responsible for daily forage-animal management decisions. The County Extension Agent and TFGC representative will make periodic evaluations of forage-animal conditions. Involvement of TFGC representatives and forage professionals is encouraged.
For a brochure outlining complete program details, and a nomination form, contact the Texas Forage & Grassland Council, P.O. Box 891, Georgetown, Texas 78627; 1/800-944-2342.
