Posted by Kathleen on March 03, 2004 at 22:51:12:
In Reply to: Re: Tell us something.....? posted by Peter O'Brien on March 03, 2004 at 10:22:23:
Hi Peter,
Yep you are right there has been LOADS of research done on cattle production figures. I do not know what they do in America but here in Australia our CSIRO has heaps of stuff about it and most of it is true as far as I can see from my limited experience.
For example _Red_ cattle to not suffer as much in the heat and they do not have as many flies as black.
I have the temperature figures somewhere around here ... I am a little busy getting cattle ready for a workshop which starts tommorrow ... but I will see if I can find them next week if you actually want the figures. I am not sure how relavant they would be for you tho!
Has no work of this nature been done in the UK by your Agricultural Departments?
As to nuturition _that is the biggest variable_
And herd managament is a BIG factor in cattle productivity also... most significant in milk production and of relevance in beef as well ... particularly when it comes to carcass quality.
Bascially a happy animal is a productive animal!
For example I know a dairyman who went away for a 2 week break and left his grumpy mother to look after the milking (his mother spends most of the time in the dairy SCREAMING at the cattle and rushing them in and out as fast as possible!) he could not believe how much his production had gone down when he came back ... and it took a week of his quite gentle handling to get them back up again!
Of course while beef cattle are not comming and going twice a day they can be just as upset and put off producing meat ... that is where the flies and heat comes in here in Australia (both of these also cause milk production to drop) but there can be other factors like paddock size and herd make up ... for example if you have a bully animal which is just that _bullies the other cows_ this can make for a unhappy herd! That is one of the reasons that I take my bulls out _the harrasment factor_ to the cows!
There are so many little variables in growing happy fat calves and the one that I am most interested in _and which is not a factor which is caused by me and thus able to be controlled by me by modifying MY behavour_ is the milk production of the cows = the best calves are on the best cows _milk wise_! And the best bodies come from the best capacity/production which I have found to be from shortlegs and/or longlegs (and I know all of you realize by 'longleg' I mean a bull around 46+ and a cow 44+)
Anyway enough rambling from me.
buy for now
Kathleen