I had a nice visit early this morning with a longtime customer from Western Wyoming. I thought I would share a portion of that discussion with you. This customer wanted to know what connection (if any) there is between our Forage Test Index and our Grass Efficiency score.
The Forage Test Index is just what it says it is. It shows how well a bull gained in our all-grass forage test – compared to his herd mates. An index of 100% is average for that group of bulls. An index of 110% is 10% above average – and an index of 90% is 10% below average.
Tyson Pharo and I do not look at this number or use it for anything – with the exception of mentioning it in our catalog comments as a sales tool. We need to stop doing that! It is not at all unusual for us to lead off a set of bulls with a bull that has a low Forage Test Index. The number has no real value to us.
Over the years, I have noticed a lot of high-gaining bulls don’t even know they are bulls yet. All they do is sleep and eat. Their lower-gaining herd mates, on the other hand, are all bull – and they know it. They stay busy looking for cows to breed and fighting with one another.
The Grass Efficiency score is calculated using a method created by Johan Zietsman, a rancher and consultant from Zimbabwe. Johan said, “Grass-efficient animals will look like eight pounds of sugar in a 5-pound sack.” Bulls with a 4 or better rating for grass efficiency will be our very best at producing early-maturing, highly-fertile, long-lasting replacement females. Bulls with 3-star grass efficiency will still be better than what other bull producers have to offer.
The Grass Efficiency score, in reality, is an indicator of early maturity – which is highly correlated with fleshing ability and fertility. Today’s mainstream cattle are tall, lean and late-maturing. That’s what the feedlots want. They want animals that will stay in the same pen for a very long time and eat lots of corn. If that animal doesn’t get fat enough to market until he weighs 1600 pounds, that is good with them However, you will go broke trying to make sisters of those animals work on your farm or ranch.
When sexual maturity takes place, muscle and skeletal growth slow down and the animal is able to start storing up energy in the form of fat. Until then, reproduction cannot take place. Fat deposition is most critical to reproduction. The more I think about it, there could very easily be an antagonism between Average Daily Gain and Grass Efficiency. Why? Because it takes 2.5 times more energy (feed) to produce a pound of fat than a pound of muscle and bone.