Mythbuster Monday: When is marbling made?

January 31, 2011

Welcome to Miranda’s Mythbuster Monday! Today I’m going to tackle a myth that’s steeped in tradition. Usually I’m all about traditions, like playing board games at Christmas and getting to pick my own birthday dessert. But whether it’s tradition or just old data, this myth still persists. Time to toss out traditional thinking and investigate research from the new millennium.

 Myth: All the grade in cattle is made the last 100 days on feed, so nothing I do on the ranch makes a difference.

Don’t tell that to Jim & Maureen Skavdahl, Marsland, Neb., who I visited with a few years ago.

The couple has been ranching in the Nebraska panhandle for decades, but it wasn’t until they started feeding cattle that they placed an emphasis on performance and carcass traits in tandem.

Somehwere between their kitchen table and the work truck, Jim told me: “The carcass thing starts on the ranch with good nutrition for the cow and a good vaccination program. Then you get the calves to the feedyard, and they have to know how to feed them. Then your end product is a pretty nice carcass.”

And nice looking calves, too.

Hmmm, maybe Jim was ahead of his time,because two years later I talked to a University of Nebraska researcher,whose work helps bust this myth:

Fact: The last 100 days are important, but scientists have discovered marbling starts much earlier in a calf’s life, even before a calf is born, when ranch management makes all the difference. I talked with Rick Funston a year ago about fetal programming, or the impact that cow nutrition has on calves’ future production. Heifer pregnancy, weaning weight and carcass quality were all improved with improved nutrition. In one trial offspring of supplemented cows graded 86% Choice, compared to 71% in the non-supplemented group. Premium Choice (the marbling threshold for CAB acceptance) percentage dropped was 39% vs. 21%. So what the cows eat effects the progeny.

After that health, weaning nutrition and implanting strategies on the ranch all make a difference, too. Some call the weeks before and after weaning the “marbling window” or the most critical period for marbling development.

We’ve gathered up some of the smartest folks in the industry to provide input for CAB’s Best Practices Manual, which details common ranch practices shown to improve carcass quality.

One of the areas it gets into is weaning, which takes me back to Adair, Iowa, which was another stop on a story trip.

Blake Crawford expects his calves to gain weight during weaning and credits that philosophy for loads of 100% choice and 50% CAB. Not bad,  huh?

He says, “Every day that a calf is lacking something nutritionally, it’s probably hurting the end quality grade, so they’re pushed hard. We believe in that.”

Once again, before his time? Two years after I spent a beautiful April afternoon with Blake and his seedstock supplier, I heard Dr. Ron Scott, of Land O Lakes Purina, talk about some of the same concepts.

You can check out the synopsis (http://www.cabpartners.com/news/press/ScottFQF-NR01210.pdf), but in a nutshell he said to start with the right genetics, take care of the cows and calves, feed them well and keep them healthy.

That’s a stark difference from the “nothing I can do” myth. So, you can’t use that as an excuse. Got others you like to try? Send them my way. With two young kids at home, I wouldn’t mind practicing for a whole truckload I’m sure to get in a decade or so.

May your bottom line be filled with black ink,

Miranda

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