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New technologies can help improve feed efficiency in beef cattle

Improving feed conversion in beef cattle without sacrificing quality can help producers increase profitability long-term.

Robby Bondurant, a ruminant nutritionist with Furst-McNess, says focusing on performance provides opportunity for producers.  “Financial sustainability is important in the beef industry and if we can’t remain financially stable, we won’t be sustainable for years to come,” he says.

Earlier this year, Furst-McNess launched Legacy Forward Beef, the company’s new beef product portfolio, with a mission to advance the legacy of operations.

He tells Brownfield a recent study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln found innovative products like Prime Force can help animals gain weight faster without sacrificing quality.  “The animals that were fed Prime Force the last 60 days had an increase in both live weight and carcass weight,” he says.  “They had increases in average daily gain, but it did not negatively impact the marbling scores or the quality grade on those cattle.”

Bondurant says those improved efficiencies help when it comes to marketing. “A lot of producers in the feedyard space are moving towards selling cattle on a carcass basis,” he says. “So quality is extremely important.”

He says it’s important for producers to have access to innovative products that help them adapt to industry changes, whether that’s cattle genetics or changes in consumer preferences. “We need to continually be looking forward, to anticipate what those changes may be and try and develop products or even management tools that can help address those challenges and those changes that come for the producers,” he says.

AUDIO: Robby Bondurant, Furst-McNess