All “production” in animals and plants starts with “reproduction”

 

Should it be a surprise that statistically, the “average” of “club calf” cow herds is lower for all reproduction measurements than is true of “bare bones commercial” cow-calf operations?

In the case of “club calf” breeding, the focus is on genetic selection.    Specifically, we seek out sires with known success in siring top “show calves” or, among younger sires, a close pedigree relationship to such sires.     There is NO correlation between “show phenotype” and the basic economics of natural fertility, calving ease, growth to weaning, growth after weaning, marbling or other carcass traits.    One of you once told me, “the most important selection trait is HAIR.”  

Purebred breeders, on the other hand, should not be smug about purebred advantages in the competition with crossbreeders.     For example, there is a disturbing percentage of cattlemen who complain of  “lameness” in Angus service bulls bred with a selection focus on weaning and yearling weight gain.    In the “EPD” breeds, outside purebred shows, there is no consistency in selection for “phenotype” (physical conformation) and its relationship to adaptation to variable environments.      A feedlot is a long ways from a “natural” environment, but it is considered a viable “economic” environment.

To summarize, while different breeds and crosses appear superior in a given environment, the one constant across all environments is --  no calf equals zero income.    No cow-calf operation makes a dime from any cow that cannot produce a live calf each calving season.    In spite of this basic fact of commercial beef cow economics, all of us as purebred or show breeders have been (and may continue to be) guilty of “holding over” an open cow to the next year…

How do we select for optimal reproduction genetics?

Decades in the AI business have taught us, the relative conception rate of each bull has little to no correlation with cow fertility rates.    The physiology of male fertility is quite simple compared to female fertility:  produce normal sperm cells (intact acrosomal caps), within healthy testicles (no fat tissue inside and away from the body outside), and when used naturally, maintain good libido (seeking out and breed any cows in heat).      

By contrast, female fertility involves both physiology (produce healthy eggs on a regular cycle, maintain a healthy uterus through repeated parturition and involution) and metabolism (good use of nutrient energy intake to maintain body condition during lactation so that new pregnancy occurs in the desired season).     Increasingly, blamed on seasonal shortage of labor, we now use “OvSynch” [synthetic hormone injection] to enable AI reproduction in place of heat detection on the natural cycle.    Again, the external human/management/economic environment will use a technology solution to solve a natural biological opportunity, in spite of its impact on costs.

So how do we breed for momma cows that give us the best chance of successful reproduction?