ULTRASOUND CARCASS EVALUATION OF REPLACEMENT HEIFERS

Today’s beef industry continues to move toward valuebased marketing of finished cattle. This consists of selling feedlot cattle on a price formula/grid that determines the value of each individual animal based on quality grade, yield grade, etc. In a value-based marketing system, your success as a beef producer depends on your ability to provide a highquality consistent end product. One of the industry’s most effective technologies, live animal carcass ultrasound, offers you a reasonable and effective way to measure and make improvement in carcass traits within your cow herd.

The most economically important carcass traits include the ribeye area, back fat, and intramuscular fat or marbling. These carcass traits can be accurately and precisely measured in the live animal with the use of ultrasound. Carcass traits are moderately to highly heritable traits, which means that selection for improved carcass quality and consistency should allow you to make change. So how does this help the commercial cattleman?

Purchasing registered bulls with carcass ultrasound data and EPDs will allow you to make changes in a positive direction. However, the bull is only half of the equation and by measuring the carcass quality of your replacement females you can speed up the progress of your herd’s carcass quality. One commercial breeder that I ultrasound about 300 head of replacement heifers a year for says that by ultrasounding his replacement females, he has been able to make the same amount of herd carcass improvement in one year that it would take seven years to do without the heifer ultrasound data. I do not recommend single trait selection for carcass improvement. Your replacement heifers need to first fit all of your criteria for size, type, disposition, etc., then make the carcass measurement your last selection/culling tool. The recommended age for ultrasounding heifers is when they are 12 to 14 months old. Using registered bulls with good carcass EPDs and ultrasound data will assure you that the bull’s genetics will add carcass value to your herd. What are your replacement females adding to the equation?

For more information, please contact Casey Worrell,
The Ranchers Resource, (512) 413-1610 or
E-mail: casey@theranchersresource.com.