Focus on What is Optimal

At a recent news conference Colorado State University Animal Scientist and best selling author Dr. Temple Grandin had some good news and then a cautionary note for beef producers.
Grandin: “Handling has improved. That is the bright spot in beef. You’ve got a lot of people now working in low stress handling, Beef Quality Assurance puts a lot of emphasis on it. That’s the good stuff.”
However, Dr. Grandin warns ranchers about an issue she has begun to see recently.
Grandin: “I’m starting to see some leg confirmation issues in some of the beef cattle that we did not have before. If a bull is going to get out and work, he can’t be post legged like ballet toe slippers or splay footed. We still need to be doing some visual appraisal of cattle. Yes, we do want to have good production but we’ve need to be looking at what is optimal, rather than what is maximum.”
She shared that one of her graduate students reviewed four of the major AI companies websites and looked at the photos of Angus, Hereford, Simmentals, and some of the other common breeds. Only 19 percent of the photos showed bulls’ entire hooves.
Grandin adds
Grandin: “EPDs and genomics stuff is a really good thing but you need to be careful of those power tools and there is still a need of visual appraisal of cattle.”