Good News at Beef Empire Days

The Grand Champion Steer and Grand Champion Heifer were sired by Green Garden Bulls out of females sired by Gardens Profit.

Good News at Beef Empire Days 2004

Congratulations to the Hays Beef Research Center for having Grand Champion Carcass Steer, Reserve Champion Carcass Steer, and Grand Champion Carcass Heifer, and their over all good placing.

Grand Champion Carcass Steer was sired AI by Gardens Bravo.  His dam was a Gardens Profit daughter.

Grand Champion Carcass Heifer was sired by AI by Gardens Matrix.  Her dam was a Gardens Profit daughter.

BEST of BREED                                                    

Good News - for the News!

Congratulations to Brandon New on having the Grand Champion Carcass Steer at the 2001 National Jr. Heifer Show in Denver this summer. His 1st place steer weighed 1193, with .20 backfat, had a 13.1 ribeye, a yield grade of 1.77 and a quality grade of Prime (SLAB 10). Brandon’s 2nd entry weighed 1167, had a 12.3 ribeye, with .2 backfat and a yield grade 2.04 and graded average choice (MT 30) and stood 10th overall. Both steers were sired by Gardens Opto.

Good News at Beef Empire Days

Steers sired by Green Garden bulls placed 1st, 10th, 11th, and 19th at the 2001 Beef Empire Days Carcass Contest in Garden City.

Report on EPD data for steer calves from Green Garden bulls

John Brethour
KSU Agricultural Research Center – Hays, Kansas

This report summarizes an analysis of the data obtained on 47 steer calves produced from semen from Green Gardens Angus. There were three test bulls An0010 - Gardens Perfection 719, An0052 - Gardens Highmark, AN0053 - Gardens Bravo and one reference bull 1123 - SC OB45. The semen was randomly assigned to the station cowherd during the 1999 breeding season. This is a typical mixed breed cowherd that averaged about 50% Angus, while the rest was predominately Simmental and a little Brahman.

The overall carcass performance of the calves was phenomenal. After regrading by USDA graders only one steer graded Select and 32 head (68%) were CAB or Prime (6 head Prime). The ultrasound evaluations made during the feeding phase projected the exceptional carcass quality and 4 head were entered in the Garden City Beef Empire Days carcass contest. One steer was champion steer carcass and the other three placed (10^th, 11^th and 19^th).  There was one steer marked YG #4 on the IBP payment invoice but that appears a mistake because his calculated yield grade was only 3.0. 24 (51%)assigned USDA yield grade #2 but 29 (62%) had a calculated yield grade of 2 or better.

The cattle were harvested in two groups, May 16 and June 20. This procedure exploited ultrasound technology to enable each animal to fulfill his maximum potential without becoming too fat. The 4 head sent to the carcass show were slaughtered June 14 and are considered contemporary to those harvested June 20.

Least square means are presented in a table titled “Means corrected for age of calf, harvest date, and percent Angus in the dam”, which summarizes the model used.  The first column in the table is the reference sire 1123. The standard error of the mean appears in the last column. Only if means differ by twice this value should the differences be considered important.

Birth weights of the calves of the test sires were larger, but no calving difficulty was encountered. Weaning weights were corrected for age using the regression model which indicated a 2.7-pound increase for each day of age.  Yearling weights were interpolated to exactly 365 days using the weights taken January 18 and April 12.

Some data was missing among the carcass measures and was estimated from the final grade sheet and are indicated in red on the spreadsheet. Steer 108 would have been CAB had he been black hided.

The preliminary results indicate that the marbling of the test bulls may have been inferior to the reference sire. However, this data provided an opportunity to examine a pair of indexing procedures that might have value in selecting bulls that meet the needs of the feeder. The trait that is most important in increasing feedlot profitability is to be able to attain as large a carcass weight as possible while holding backfat to under .4 inch. Then at that point one would demand a string likelihood of grading Choice or better. In other words the perfect steer is one that produces a 949-pound Choice 2 (or better) carcass.

So this data was used to calculate carcass weight and quality grade on the day the animal had (or would) measure .4 inch carcass backfat. The procedure for this can be found in the attached spreadsheets.

A more accurate method of data collection was devised by targeting yield grade 2.9 instead of .4 inch backfat because that enabled including ribeye area and percent KPH fat in the index. Those calculations are also shown on the spreadsheets and summarized in the tables.

The results of these procedures reveal some exciting information about two of the test bulls, AN0010 and AN0052. They produced muscular, high growth and yet high quality calves. Note that the final adjusted carcass weight using this procedure is nearly 100 pounds more than the reference sire and equaling or nearly equaling the quality grade at that end point.

In conclusion, all the progeny produced in this study performed exceptionally well. But the detailed analyses that two of the test bulls appear to have superior genetics that will be very beneficial to the industry.

 Comparison of Angus and Wagyu Steers

For information Call, Mail or email to the respective addresses below.

Green Garden Angus
1356 AVE M
ELLSWORTH KS 67439
PH:(785) 472-3752
E-Mail: janssen@grapevine.net