Stacy Campbell
K-State Research & Extension

October has traditionally been weaning and culling time for spring-calving herds. This is a time when producers decide which cows no longer are helpful to the operation and which heifer calves will be kept for future replacements. Selecting against ill-tempered cattle has always made good sense. Wild cattle are hard on equipment, people, other cattle, and now we know that they are hard on the bottom line.

Mississippi State University researchers used a total of 210 feeder cattle consigned by 19 producers in a “Farm to Feedlot” program to evaluate the effect of temperament on performance, carcass characteristics, and net profit. Temperament was scored on a 1 to 5 scale (1=nonaggressive, docile; 5=very aggressive, excitable). Three measurements were used: pen score, chute score, and exit velocity. Measurements were taken on the day of shipment to the feedlot. Exit velocity is an evaluation of temperament that is made electronically by measuring the speed at which the animal leaves the confinement of the chute. Exit velocity and pen scores were highly correlated. As pen scores increased, so did exit velocity. As pen score and exit velocity increased, health treatments costs and number of days treated increased, while average daily gain and final body weight decreased. This outcome makes perfect sense. Other studies have shown that excitable temperament can diminish immune responsiveness, with more temperamental calves having a reduced response to vaccination when compared with calm calves.

In the Mississippi study, as pen temperament score increased, net profit per head tended to decline. Pen temperament scores and net profits per head were as follows: 1=$121.89; 2=$100.98; 3=$107.18; 4=$83.75; 5=$80.81. Although feed and cattle price relationships have changed since this data was collected, one would expect similar impacts from the temperaments of cattle under today’s economic situation.

“Heritability” is the portion of the differences in a trait that can be attributed to genetics. The heritability of temperament in beef cattle has been estimated to range from 0.36 to 0.45. This moderate level of heritability indicates that real progress can be made by selecting against wild cattle. Whether we are marketing our calf crop at weaning or retaining ownership throughout the feedlot phase, wild, excitable cattle are expensive to own and raise.

Feeding distillers grains to cattle
Infrequent delivery did not affect cow performance
Infrequent feeding did not negatively affect cow performance
At the Agricultural Research Center in Hays beef scientists John Jaeger and Justin Waggoner conducted a study in which pregnant Angus-cross cows were fed Dried Distillers Grain Solubles (DDGS) as a protein supplement daily, every 3 days, or every 6 days from December 27, 2011, through March 20, 2012. All cows were maintained together in a common native range pasture, sorted daily for feeding, and provided the equivalent of 0.5 lb crude protein/cow per day in the form of DDGS (29.5% crude protein). Cow body weight and body condition scores were collected every 28 days throughout the duration of the study.
The Bottom Line: Supplementing cows with protein as infrequently as every 6 days did not negatively affect cow body weight or body condition score. Producers can reduce cost using DDGS as an inexpensive protein source and can reduce labor and fuel costs with infrequent delivery. View the complete research report at www.asi.ksu.edu/cattlemensday.
If you have any questions contact your local County Extension Office or John Jaeger (785-625-3425; [email protected]) & Justin Waggoner (620-275-9164; [email protected]).