The more we meet with locals and interrupt their day, the nicer they seem to be
Post by Clemson undergraduate John Anderson
Our visit to the Midlands
Bull Test facility was cut short due to Steve, the owner, having to pick up his
daughter from basketball practice and we had to drive back to Bozeman for our
organic dairy tour. Although this was
unfortunate, the time we did spend there talking to Steve was time well
spent. Basically, bull owners send their
bulls to Midlands where the bulls are raised and put to auction each year. Progressive ideas were also used here. Like at the feedlot and Montana State,
Midlands used Grow-Save to feed their bulls.
Unlike at the feedlot where customers could customize their feed,
Midlands used the same feed for all the bulls.
The Grow-Save was still used in a progressive way to monitor each bull’s
health. Steve would check the amount of
food each day that each bull was eating.
So, if a bull’s feed intake dropped for two days in a row, Steve would
know something is wrong with the bull.
Bulls will stop eating if they are getting sick and Steve is able to see
that and help treat the bulls early before they show any physical symptoms. Another different perspective that Steve
managed his bulls with is that he focused more on the overall condition of the
bulls instead of just caring about weight.
These bulls are not raised to be slaughtered so the maximum weight is
not necessarily important. Rather, the
bulls are raised for breeding and must go out in the field and be able to
perform. So instead of solely focusing
on bulls’ weights, Steve heavily considers other performance factors including
the health of their feet. Having healthy
feet on a bull is important because the bull should be able to graze on the
ranch and mate with the cows, with poor feet these tasks become less
productive. One last takeaway point
Steve mentioned was that you “should never judge a book by its cover”. He was referring to how bulls at auctions
should not be bought just because they come from a popular or well-known
rancher. With all the new data and
numbers on the bulls that Midlands produce for the buyers, a small name rancher
may very well have an outstanding bull.
In fact, the highest priced bull this year was over $200,000 and came
from a first-time customer.
The visit to
Weschenfelder Feedlot was one of my favorite experiences this trip so far. The owner, Dan, was an unexpectedly
fantastic host to us. The more and more
we meet with locals and interrupt their day, the nicer they seem to be, including Dan, the Frosts, Steve from Midlands, and Melvin from the organic
dairy. I’m amazed to begin with, that
they all agree to meet with us and take time away from their day in the first
place. I’m then blown away with how open, honest and friendly they are when
talking to us. Dan, an older gentleman
who has an entire feedlot operation to run, gave us an awesome tour of his
facilities. Customers come to Dan to
finish their cattle, meaning the cattle are sent there to put on weight. Dan
custom feeds each owner’s cattle specifically to their wants, usually with a “90%
grain diet to build up intermolecular fat” said Dan. This contrasts with the Midlands Bull Testing
facility as they do not custom feed their bulls but serve one general feed to
the bulls. After 2 or 3 months at the
feedlot, the cows are sent to be slaughtered. Although Dan was an
old-fashioned, traditional working man, I was surprised to see how progressive
and open to new ideas he could be. For
example, he allowed a customer to install Grow-Save feeders to track the amount
of feed each of his cattle eats. The
GrowSafe system works by tracking a chip in the cow’s ear that turns on when
the cow’s head passes through the racks when the cow goes to feed. We will see this same system at Montana State
and at Midlands. This same customer of
Dan is going to also install a similar feature that tracks the amount of water his
cows drink. Dan also showed a
progressive thinking mind when he surprised us that he was feeding bison at his
lot. Two weeks earlier he decided to buy
500 bison to fatten and sell. With all
the controversy around bison, Dan would have been the last guy I would have
expected to have bison at his feedlot.
This just reminds us never to judge a book by its cover.
The day we spent at
Montana State was also a very good day.
The three presentations by Sam, Devon, and Megan were intriguing and
well presented. Seeing the wool lab and
the farrier in action was awesome too, but I’m going to focus on the cannulated
cows and the donated steers to follow the progressive theme from earlier. First off, sticking my hand and arm inside a
cow’s rumen was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me that I was ecstatic to
be able to do. The warmth and amount of
feed in the rumen was eye-opening. The
progressive idea of being able to access a living cow’s rumen has led to many
new studies and understanding of cattle.
The new nutritional insight into the digestion process of cows has and
will lead to better and more productive foraging practices. Letting ranchers know the best type of forage
for cows to graze or the best type of feed to feed the cows during the winter
will give ranchers better returns on their cattle. Montana State also has this program called
Steer-a-Year. Each year local ranchers
will donate steers to the school that students take care of and manage. I would love to be able to participate in
such a program at Clemson even though I’m not an animal science major. Feeding and raising a steer during the school
year that would be used to feed students in the dining halls would teach me a
lot about responsibility and would be very rewarding in the end.
Melvin from the organic
dairy and cheese factory was an awesome character. I would love to go work for him during the
summer. Milking the goats and taking
care of the animals would be an awesome summer job, or I would also enjoy
helping his son grow vegetables. I love
the fact that he did everything organically and this progressive mindset
allowed Melvin to gain an advantage over his competitors. Another thing I picked up on was that Melvin
ran all stages of the process himself.
He raised the goats, he milked the goats, he processed and made the
cheese, and he sold the cheese. This is
different from most cattle operations where a rancher runs a cow/calf ranch, then sells the calves to a feedlot that then ships the finished cows to a
slaughterhouse. Although running all the
different stages would require more work, it could be more productive and
ultimately cheaper. I would like to see
more ranchers implement this strategy and see how it goes.
