Cow-Calf Corner | April 24, 2023
The Rich Legacy of the Florida Beef Cattle Industry
Derrell S. Peel, Oklahoma State University Extension Livestock Marketing Specialist
The first cattle to arrive in what is now the United States were brought to Florida by Ponce de Leon in 1521. Over time, cattle ranching was established in Florida and the cowboys who used whips to bring cattle out of the swamps and thickets became known as Cracker cowboys and the cows known as Cracker cattle. Cracker cattle are still found in Florida today.
However, the beef cattle industry in Florida today is modern and big business. On January 1, 2023, Florida was the number nine beef cow state in the country with nearly 900 thousand head. Several of the top ten cattle cow-calf ranches in the country are in Florida. The long legacy of cattle ranching in Florida includes many multi-generational operations that are still going strong. Last week, a group from Oklahoma, including members of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and from Oklahoma State University, visited Florida to learn about cattle and agricultural production in an environment unlike anywhere else in the country.
Figure 1: Cattle grazing under palm trees near Okeechobee, Florida.
The biggest concentration of beef cattle in Florida is in the region to the west and a bit north of Lake Okeechobee. The semi-tropical climate of southern Florida is unique and cow-calf production faces many special challenges but some advantages as well, compared to the rest of the country. This area is largely frost-free but faces a pronounced dry season each year. Forage biomass is relatively abundant, but the quality is low and deteriorates quickly in dry periods. The heat, humidity, pests and disease challenges are such that most cows include some bos indicus influence in order to survive and reproduce. Crossbreeding is important to balance adaptation to the environment and the market demands for carcass quality. Most calves are fall-born and are marketed the following summer. Much attention is devoted to calf health pre-weaning and calves are shipped right off the cow to western feedlots with relatively few problems. Summer climate in Florida does not work well to wean and precondition calves and it is important that calves arrive to their destination in the middle of the country by early September at the latest so that they can acclimatize prior to colder and more variable weather conditions in the fall.
The Oklahoma group visited several cow-calf operations to see the pastures, cows and conditions and hear from producers in the region. Ranching in Florida has many unique challenges beyond typical cattle production and marketing concerns, including numerous issues and government programs relative to water management, resource conservation, wildlife, and predators, along with continual urban development. The group also learned about related agricultural enterprises including sugarcane, citrus, and vegetable production. This region of Florida is also a major dairy production area, and the group visited a large dairy as well. The beef and dairy industries mutually support each other by combining to provide a critical mass necessary for cattle feed infrastructure and markets. By-products from the sugarcane industry (molasses) and the citrus industry (citrus pulp) are important local feed resources for cattle production. The severe reduction in citrus production due to the disease citrus greening is having ripple effects on cattle production due to the loss of citrus pulp as a feed resource. The group also enjoyed an airboat ride and a chance to see some alligators up close.
A big thanks to Buck Island Ranch, Butler Oaks Farm, Lykes Brothers Ranch, the Florida Seminole tribe, Larson Dairy and Williamson Ranch for hosting the group on their operations. The trip was capped by an evening of conversation and an excellent steak dinner with several local ranchers and members of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association. A special thanks to Lauren Butler, Okeechobee County Extension Director and other extension folks in the region for the terrific arrangements and logistical support. There is no better way to get a new perspective on your own operation than to see how the cattle industry works in a very different environment.
Q & A - Blueprint For The Future Conference
Mark Z. Johnson, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Breeding Specialist
The 2023 Cattlemen’s Conference – Blueprint For The Future will be held in Stillwater on May 24th and 25th. The program will address a variety of topics that are challenging the beef industry and promises to be informative, exciting and timely. If you are in the cattle business, regardless of what sector of the industry or the size of your operation this conference will offer information of value. Based on feedback about this event, this article will address the most frequently asked questions.
Q: Who had the idea for the Blueprint For The Future conference and why are we doing it now?
A: Discussions among cattle owners about the need for an event like this started during the first Cattlemen’s Congress Show in 2021. Based on OSU’s history of hosting some watershed events such as the National Steer Symposium in 1982 and the Blueprint for the Right Kind cattle conference in 1988, it was determined that the OSU Department of Animal and Food Sciences would host the event on the OSU campus. In 2022, personnel from the Cattlemen’s Congress stock show, the Noble Research Institute and OSU Cooperative Extension decided to cooperatively sponsor the event and began planning the topics and speakers.
Q: How is this event alike or different from the National Steer Symposium in 1982 or the Blueprint for the Right Kind conference in 1988?
A: Those conferences were based on a need to significantly change the “on foot” type of steers and breeding cattle that were winning in the showring to a more practical kind to better fit consumer demand, industry grading standards and production environments. The 1988 conference was also a clear turning point in industry acceptance and use of EPDs on a wide-scale basis across the industry. This conference goes deeper into a wider variety of topics that are currently challenging the beef industry.
Q: So what topics will be discussed at this conference?
A: Pasture management and some of the newest information we have on dealing with drought. The latest information from what is going on in the beef packing industry and the national beef audit. Panel discussions on genetics and breeding, selection for extremes (are there traits we should max out to the highest possible level or is there an intermediate optimum?) Ethics in marketing and the showring. A report from competing protein sources. A look at how consumer demand and economic trends will impact marketing beef in the future. A cattle market outlook. Throughout the program the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions of the speakers.
Q: Will there be live cattle to evaluate?
A: Definitely yes. There will be live animal evaluation of finished steers, breeding cattle, estimations of birth dates, feed intake and a variety of evaluation questions addressed outside of what might be expected. And after evaluations are made all the data that has been collected on the live animals will be revealed on the second day of the conference.
Q: How do I register, what is the cost and what is included?
A: Registration cost for the conference is $200 which all meals and all parts of the program. There is a discounted rate of $150 for OSU Extension Educators. To register for the conference, motel information, and to access a detailed conference schedule visit: Cattlemen's Congress Conference. You will receive confirmation after successfully registering.
Fitting Dairy x Beef Crosses into Beef Production Systems
Paul Beck, Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Nutrition Specialist
Dairy and beef producers are pressured by low profitability and external forces such as consumer’s negative perceptions of animal handling and welfare, and animal agriculture’s impact on the environment. Historically, the value from the sale of bull calves in dairy enterprises has represented a small percentage of their total revenue. Reproductive technologies allow producers to select replacement heifers from only their best cows. For dairy cows with lower genetic merit, sires from beef breed can be used for the pregnancy needed to start new lactations. The resulting dairy x beef crosses offer superior genetic merit for beef production such as finishing performance, efficiency, and immune function compared with straight-bred dairy steers, adding value to both the beef and the dairy enterprises.
It is perceived that dairy and beef x dairy crossbreds will not function in normal stocker production systems, where light weight calves are grown to heavier weights on pasture. We are conducting research to find the effects of management of beef x dairy crossbred steers for beef production on economic and environmental sustainability.
Our objective is to determine the effect of calf-fed or yearling finishing systems on the performance of dairy-beef crossbred steers. Dairy-beef hybrid steers were acquired from Land O’ Lakes Calf Milk Research Facility at Grey Summit, Missouri at 12-wk of age and transported to Willard Sparks Beef Research Center (WSBRC) in groups of 70 to 72 steers. Alternating groups of steers were placed either directly on a total mixed ration feeding program for finishing (FIN) at 280 pounds (FIN) or were put out on high-quality pasture and supplementation for 5 to 6 months before returning to WSBRC for finishing (GRW/FIN). Once GRW/FIN steers reached 675 to 750 pounds, they returned to WSBRC for finishing.
Steers placed directly on feed in FIN treatment took 312 days to finish and weighed 1427 pounds when harvested at 406 days of age. These steers gained 3.65 pounds per day and consumed an average of 22 pounds of dry matter per day with a 5.9 pounds of feed per pound of gain feed conversion. These steers were over 80% USDA Choice and Prime quality grade.
Steers placed on grass gained 1.75 to 2.25 pound per day during the stocker period. During finishing, the GRW/FIN steers gained 4.23 pounds per day for 189 days on feed and were harvested at 1485 pounds. These steers consumed an average of 28 pounds of dry matter per day and feed conversions were 6.5 pounds of feed per pound of gain. Possibly due to increased age at harvest the quality grade of these steers increased to 94% USDA Choice and Prime.
We found you can’t just turn these calves out on pasture. Just like any set of new cattle, there is training required to get the calves to stay in a group, adjust to coming up for supplements and understanding fences. In the right circumstances beef x dairy crossbreds can thrive in a stocker program and be integrated into our beef production system.
This work is supported by AFRI Critical Agriculture Research and Extension award no. 2022-68008-37102/project accession no. 1028272 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
This and other finishing research will be presented at the Beef Finishing Field Day on April 27th beginning at 10 am at the OSU Totusek Arena and continuing after lunch at the Willard Spark Beef Research Unit. For more information and to register for the event contact Mariah Reimer at mreimer@okcattlemen.org.