Bovine Practitioners' Role - Information Transfer

Carcass to Conception

Abstract

Traditional business management goals in the beef industry have centered on BREAKEVENS within production segments. Cow-calf producers manage pounds, feedyards "manage" to sell corn, and packers manage chain speed. Who manages for consumers? The 1995 NCBA Quality Audit indicates that the Beef Industry tolerates 20 million dollar losses due to bruises, 32% of slaughtered cattle had horns, and $7.05 per head was lost due to injection site lesions. Summaries of feedlot closeouts demonstrate cost of gain ranges of $20/cwt depending on respiratory disease morbidity and cattle genetic ability to perform. Veterinarians involved in Feedlot and/or Cow-Calf operations can enhance progress in efficiency, performance, and quality and have responsibilities to transfer data and information along the Beef Production chain. Bi-directional signals sent between production segments can help the Beef lndustry maintain market share and compete economically with other industries.