A36-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 27, 2002
Beef Management Class Includes Field Trip
MICHELLE KUNJAPPU
Lancaster Farming Staff
ELVERSON and GLEN
MOORE (Chester Co.) Lec
tures, panel discussions, an on
foot, on-rail evaluation, and
hands-on learning experiences
are all part of a beef management
short course offered by the Berks
County cooperative extension.
Besides beef producers and in
dustry representatives, speakers
included Penn State extension
agents, veterinarians, and scien
tists. Organizers conducted the
class Thursday evenings in
March and April.
Lecture topics included beef
breeds, records, evaluation, herd
health and diseases, buildings
and facilities, reproduction, AI,
sire selection, nutrition, forage se
lection, tax considerations, and
marketing.
The seminar moved outdoors
on Thursday evening, as partici
pants traveled to Glen Oak
Farm, Glenmoore, and Cedar
Meadows Farm, Elverson.
Participants included not only
those interested in learning the
beef trade but also experienced
beef producers looking for new
ideas.
Livestock extension agent Che
ryl Fairbaim acted as a tour
guide during the evening.
Tour participants were able to
hear about the operation of life
time farmer Nelson Beam, who
farms 600 total acres, besides his
cattle feeding operation. Three
quarters of the acreage is in com,
with the balance barley rotated
back into soybeans, in addition to
a small amount of hay.
“Com uses up a lot of phos
phorus,” said Beam. “The biggest
source of manure is the hogs, so
we try to balance the crop with
the nutrients we have available,”
he said. Beam finishes 4,500 hogs
per year.
Every farming operation re
quires adjustments and change,
and a recent change that Beam
considers especially beneficial is
the removal of siding of the bam.
The replacement was curtains
that can be lifted for greater ven
tilation or cooler temperatures.
The screen has proven to be an
asset, he said.
“My philosophy is that when
ever I get extra money I buy
something I’m going to get a re
turn on,” he said. “In my busi
Producers Learn To Evaluate Animals, Meats For Quality
Extension agent says
meat butchers in major
chain stores may soon be a
thing of the past.
DAVE LEFEVER
Lancaster Farming Staff
LEESPORT (Berks Co.)
Beef and pork producers should
know what consumers look for in
the meat they buy.
To teach producers how to
identify those qualities in both
live and dressed animals, Clyde
Myers of Berks County extension
recently offered a three-session
“on-foot on-rail” evaluation
course.
“You need to have a mental
picture of what ideal animals
look like,” Myers told the group
of about 25 who attended the first
session Monday evening.
It is becoming more important
that producers meet the call for
consistent meat quality, accord
ing to Myers.
“The market is demanding the
traits they want from these ani
mals,” he said. “(Producers) will
be asked to produce a more un
iform product.”
With pork, consumers have
clearly shown they want leaner
cuts than they did in the past.
Beef, however, can be a greater
ness, that’s the necessary way to
go”
A new TMR mixer, for exam
ple, was an investment that he
believes will pay for itself in a
year.
“We can push the cattle up to
a high-grain ration sooner,” he
said. “It enables the rumen to di
gest feedstuffs a lot better.” Be
sides high-moisture corn, com si
lage, and barley with molasses,
Beam also adds cookie meal, or
bakery waste, to the ration. He
feeds the 200 head of cattle twice
a day.
“It makes it a lot easier to
feed,” he said. “Before, it was al
ways a guessing game. Also the
cattle used to fight to get to the
bunk to get the first pickings be
cause they were separated.” Now,
he said, the cattle seem to know
the ration is consistent and the
animals are not as competitive at
the bunk.
Each animal is double vacci
nated. “We don’t buy anything
that isn’t vaccinated,” he said.
“We just found that it doesn’t
pay.”
The group also discussed heif
ers, which Fairbaim said lend
themselves to the freezer trade,
since the smaller carcass weight
is ideal for consumers. Beam beds
his cattle mostly with com fodder
baled on the farm. However this
varies according to availability
and price of alternative bedding.
“I always feel that you have to
look at the long-term goals,” said
Beam. “You have to determine
where you want to be 10 or 15
years from now.”
Since 1988, when Jay Heim,
Glenmoore, purchased his first
Angus cattle, the beef business
has been a continual learning ex
perience.
Heim’s acreage is divided by a
road with 70 acres on one side
and 200 on the other. “I’ve been
developing this grazing system
for 10 years and now I’m getting
a lot of things down, so I’m ex
panding,” he said.
The 35 acres used as pasture
are divided into 10 paddocks.
The system is not intensive, so
the cattle are moved every three
days to one week.
Heim has adapted the schedule
to his lifestyle and job schedule.
“I’m not always here at 3 o’clock
when the cows are hungry and
I’d rather waste grass by moving
challenge. While consumers say
they want lean beef, they might
not be willing to sacrifice consis
tent flavor to get it, according to
Myers.
It is a challenge to produce
lean cuts of beef that are consis
tently flavorful and tender. The
USDA grading system demon
strates this, still designating as
“prime” those cuts that show a
high degree of marbling fat
within the meat. It’s that mar
bling that makes the juiciest and
what many consider the most
flavorful steaks.
The other factor used in
USDA grading of beef is the age
of the animal at slaughter, but
that is difficult to assess from the
cuts, Myers pointed out.
“Maturity is probably more
important than marbling for de
termining tenderness, but it’s dif
ficult to tell maturity before 30
months of age,” he said. This
leaves marbling as the chief fac
tor for determining the USDA
grade.
The challenge of producing
lean, tender beef can be even
greater for those who finish beef
on grass and direct-market it,
according to Myers. One way for
these graziers to assure tender
ness and good flavor is to have
Nelson Beam, left, discusses feedlot beef with class participants at his farm in Elver
son.
them ahead before the pasture is
finished than have them hungry.
“It’s a little different to man
age with the spring flush,” he
said. “I let them graze a little off
the time and move them on
quickly to start grazing it down.
If I wait until the grass is really
strong, by the time they get to the
last paddock the grass is old.”
Heim plants pasture with grasses
of differing maturation rates for
that purpose.
Using an ATV to reseed the
paddocks works best when the
cattle are in the pasture and can
“hoof it in,” he said.
Water dictates pasture area
and location, and Heim’s water
sources include springs, a pond,
and piped water. A lane runs
along the back of the paddocks to
funnel cattle from one pasture to
another.
Heim is moving from a crop/
cattle/hay operation to more of a
grass-based operation. To accom
plish this he is using multi-pur
pose seed mixes of hay and pas
ture grasses. For example instead
of harvesting hay during a dry
period, he may turn the cattle out
on the field.
the animals slaughtered relatively
young, such as at 15 months of
age, he said.
Myers urged direct-marketers
to become knowledgeable about
evaluating meat quality, both on
foot and on-rail.
“You need to know your prod
uct if you’re going to direct-mar
ket,” he said.
The demand for product con
sistency in the broader market is
partly because supermarkets are
rapidly losing their own meat
processors, Myers noted.
“Probably in less than 10 years
we’ll see no butchers at the major
chain stores,” he said.
Those in attendance learned
how to estimate carcass weights,
quality grades, and yield grades
using live animals.
Using standard cuts of meat
for grading, the group also
learned to estimate loin eye area,
10th rib backfat thickness, and
percent lean for swine. For beef,
they estimated rib eye backfat
thickness; rib eye area; and kid
ney, pelvic, and heart fat to esti
mate yield grade.
For more information on eval
uating meat animals and meat
quality, contact your local exten
sion office.
Lamb information is also avail
able.
Across the street, participants
visited a former intensive feedlot
that is now used to winter heifers
and one of the herd bulls. Also at
the location is a cow/calf herd in
the surrounding paddocks. A
chute and cattle handling facility,
a two-man operation, is also pres
ent for loading/unloading and
processing needs.
Part of developing; and perfect
ing an operation involves change
and improvement. “Every time
we use this system I think of
something I want to change,” he
said. “There’s always something
to improve upon. We learn as we
go.”
Heim is experimenting with
sorghum sudan grass and millet.
The farm’s acreage allows him
to renew the pastures. “Right
now I have more pasture than
cows,” he said. “That gives me a
chance to renovate without hav
ing to worry about not having
enough grass.”
Calves that grow quickly and
put flesh on, especially on a
grass-based operation, are part of
Heim’s goal. “If I can produce a
nice set of calves that do that and
all look all the same, I feel good
Clyde Myers urges meat producers and direct-market
ers to know their product.
about that.”
The calves are acclimated to a
small amount of grain so they are
familiar with the bunks “and
ready to go” when they move
into the feedlot.
“The grain isn’t poured on,”
said Fairbaim. “Just so they
know what feed is and they know
what’s going on. When they hit
the feedlot they are really ready
to put the pounds on.”
In the bam is a compact han
dling system that includes a
squeeze chute and electronic
scales. Here Heim castrates, vac
cinates, and measures weaning
and yearling weights which help
him to make culling decisions.
“It’s very hard to work without
weighing cattle,” he said. “You
can look at them but you don’t
really know how they’re doing.”
The curving passageways
allow for less stress on the cattle.
Additionally, the catch gate
faces the door of the bam, so the
animals are walking into sun
light. “Once they have been
through here once, they just walk
right through,” he said. “Nobody
gets upset including the
calves.”