Page 16 - Sep302021

The Midwest Cattleman · September 30, 2021 · P16 Vaccination
SCAPEGOATING
continued from page 3 “ultimate black swan event,” data that identified econo- “Before the administration
Potts said, “its occurrence does my-wide price inflation, con- attempts to recreate the ani- Protocols
attempts to convey the chal- not automatically mean the firming that consumer price mal agriculture industry, it is
lenges faced by meat and system is broken or needs to inflation is far broader than prudent to look back and ac-
poultry packers and proces- be torn down and rebuilt. Nor meat and poultry products. knowledge the benefits that
sors in meeting extraordinary does the fact that the indus- Potts also referenced the fact flow from the food supply
consumer demand to Biden try has changed, and changed both the House and Senate chains as they exist, which
Administration officials," the significantly over the past few Agriculture Committees held ERS described as ‘efficient,’”
letter was sent to Vilsack chal- decades, mean it has changed hearings last summer look- Potts wrote. “In 2020, accord-
lenging his comments at a for the worse. The pandem- ing at cattle and beef markets, ing to ERS, Americans spent
White House briefing on Sept. ic seems to be the vehicle with agricultural economists an average of 8.6 percent of
8. spawning new bad ideas, and testifying at both hearings. their disposable personal in-
Specifically, Potts said she resurrecting other bad ideas, “At neither hearing did any comes on food. Indeed, Ameri-
was “surprised to hear you al- seemingly without recogniz- economist suggest that con- cans spend less of their dispos-
lege the structure of the meat ing economic realities and sumer price inflation for meat able personal income on food
and poultry industry is caus- unintended consequences. and poultry products was than any other country in the
ing price inflation for meat Indeed, none of the proposals linked to the structure of the world. This remarkable drop
and poultry products, and advanced at the press briefing meat and poultry industry,” is attributable largely to sys-
disappointed that you failed will alleviate the consumer Potts wrote. tematic efficiencies that allow
to acknowledge the array of price increases the adminis- Potts cited other USDA re- food processors to offer food to
market forces affecting retail tration seeks to address.” ports on industry structure consumers at lower prices.”
prices.” The letter referenced USDA and historical margins for in- agweb.com
Calling the pandemic the Economic Research Service dustry segments.

EVALUATING to look at the repeatability and calculated their open cow to years) contributed to less than
continued from page 13 the impact of key physical fac- bull ratio at 23.6. Calculated, 5% of the prolificacy prediction
in the pasture or sire prolifi- tors such as bull age and scro- as cows were exposed to AI and didn’t influence repeat-
cacy. For most this data would tal circumference on prolifica- previously and AI conception ability. As one might expect,
be a by-product of the goal of cy. rates were used to determine prolificacy increased as bull
knowing the calf’s genetic po- As you begin pregnancy remaining open cows exposed. age advanced. The authors
tential. checking cows this autumn, Dr. Bennett and team eval- suggested once a bull passes a
Previous data have shown knowing historic sire prolif- uated a wide range of practi- breeding soundness exam the
that while multi-bull pastures icacy would provide insights cal multi-bull pasture models, usefulness of individual bull
offer management advantag- as to why cows may be open or bull turnout ranging from 3 measurements to indicate pro-
es, the distribution of sires the calving seasons string out due to 11 bulls per pasture, with a lificacy is marginal at best.
following year are not uniform. to unplanned excessive cow to cow age range from 3 to 8 year- Repeatability of prolificacy
The team expanded their scope bull ratios. The research team olds. There were 141 unique was high, suggesting from one
breeding opportunities with year to the next prolific sires
www.powerflexfence.com.powerflexfence.com 38 of the bulls used in just one should remain prolific. What
www
season, 41 bulls averaged 2.5 the team was unable to eval-
breeding seasons and 4 bulls uate was the impact of imple-
were used all four years of the menting selection pressure for
experiment. prolificacy. Dr. Bennett’s team
The distribution of calves did suggest implementing
per breeding opportunity is management changes to re-
where the data gets interest- duce the number of bulls used
ing. For 21 of the breeding op- in cases where prolificacy was
portunities (1 bull for a season) high will remain limited by
7 calves or less were sired, 3 of the risk of bull injury or death.
those resulted in no calves. On Perhaps we cannot reduce
the other end of the curve, 7 the number of bulls turned
breeding opportunities result- out, but consider the risk we
ed in 43 calves or more, with take turning unknown or mar-
one of these siring 57 calves. ginally prolific sires out in
If we extrapolate the data multi-bull pastures as few op-
for illustration, imagine the erations have variable cow to
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