Engineers can be an odd lot. One
professor described it with what people see when a car rolls down a
hill. Most people see a car rolling down a hill. Some will jump to
where its going and what it will run into when it stops rolling. The
engineer sees it with all the various force vectors, and all their
associated parameters. He wants to measure the slope of the hill
along the path, the pressure in the tires, etc. The engineer will
predict how fast it is going when it hits the grove of trees, and how
far into the grove the car will travel along with a statistical
variance that accounts for how accurately he knows the various
parameters.
Chemical engineers concern themselves
with the processes to take raw feed stocks and turn them into some
desirable product. For example, taking crude oil and making
gasoline, diesel fuel, plastic, and a myriad of other things. In
this case, I'm looking at making beef. The beef business is
compartmentalized. The rancher's product is usually a live animal in
the form of bulls, steers, heifers and cows. Most calves are raised
with the eventual end product of a medium rare steak on a plate.
Some are raised to become breeding stock to make steak or more
breeding stock.
I will constrain the discussion to the
cow-calf producer. That is the beginning of the process and the
segment of the business that I chose. The product is a weaned calf
ready for the next stage. The first product in this stage is
conceiving calves in cows. The general approach is to mix enough
cows and bulls together to get every cow pregnant. Nourish the cows
until they give birth. Nourish the cows while they feed their
calves, wean the calves, finish preparing calves for the next step.
The simplified flowchart looks like this:
Of course, this flowchart can be much
more complex. Cows can be bred naturally, by artificial
insemination, and embryo transfer. Cows are ready to breed sometimes
within 23 days (cycle time) and mostly within 46 days after giving
birth. Gestation is approximately 9 months, so you aim to have them
give birth at the same time every year, and you control that by when
breeding can occur. Nursing the current calf and breeding occur simultaneously, and not necessarily in a discrete, step-wise fashion.
Cows and bulls are never the same from
one individual to another. If you have a herd of 100 cows, then you
have the equivalent of 100 separate plants that turn grass, water and
oxygen into beef. Each “plant” is more or less capable of
producing beef. Some can do it at a pound a day while others can
accomplish 5 pounds a day. Some may require 20 pounds of feed per
day to achieve an output of 1 pound per day of calf weight gain.
Some may take 50 pounds of feed to produce a calf gain of 5 pounds
per day.. In general, higher calf weight gains require a higher feed
rate.
The process variables inherent in
chemical plants exist for cows, too. When ambient temperatures are
cold, then they must convert more grass into in energy to stay warm.
When its hot, they must consume more water (up to 25 gallons a day in
my experience) to stay cool, and provide for digestion. They may
spend time finding places to stand or lay down to remain comfortable
rather than eat. Radiant (sun) and natural and forced (wind)
convective heat transfer along with evaporative heat loss plays an
important role. The ruminant digestive process generates heat even
before absorption of food into the body, so there is an exothermic
reaction going on in the rumen. Some breeds of cows are better
adapted to warmer climates while others work well in cold conditions.
Some do not work well in lower pressure zones (read high altitude).
When a plant stops producing either you
replace parts to allow it to produce or you take it all apart and
sell the parts for recycle. Its no different with cattle. When a
cow doesn't breed back its an indication that something about that
“plant” isn't functioning well with the inputs. It can simply be
age, poor teeth, poor hooves, or it can be that it doesn't agree with
the environment or the feed. You sell the “plant,” and either
keep one of the heifer calves or buy a completely new “plant.”
By selling the cows that don't produce you develop a set of “plants”
that get along well with the environment and feed.
Cows, calves and bulls require
preventative and corrective maintenance. Cattle live in an
environment in which various pathogens grow. Some are lethal, but
most result in reduced production either in calf growth or inability
to breed again. When a calf dies you not only lose the income from
the sale, but also the money spent in feeding its mother. Cattle are
vaccinated for the most common diseases and given supplements like salt containing trace minerals (preventative maintenance),
but they still get sick and must be “doctored”(corrective
maintenance). Corrective maintenance not only occurs with respect to
individual cattle, but also with respect to the herd as a whole.
When cows or calves get sick that is an indication that the they have
not adapted or their bodies cannot resist viruses or bacteria present
in their surroundings. The herd is corrected by selling individuals
that get sick.
The product can be prepared with
respect to quality. Vaccination sites develop pockets in the meat,
so injections should be given in the neck,. Brands can can mess up
the hide for leather purposes, so you brand in less valuable
locations (mine is right hip). Meat is sold as select, choice or
prime (select has the least inter-muscular marbling with fat), and is
ranked as to yield grade from one to five (the lower the better).
Grass finished beef contains all the omega 3 fats (cancer fighting,
good for you). Grain finishing replaces all the omega 3 fats with
omega 6 fats within 45 days. You can target the sector of the market
with your herd. It is possible to achieve greater than 90% choice
and better with yield grade 1, but grain finished. Preparing heifers
and bulls for breed stock can be great genetic work, but the breeder
needs to keep an eye on what the market wants or be able to sell the
market on what they need.
Breeders, through breed associations,
track between ten and fifteen characteristics that are quantified as
Expected Progeny Differences. For example, cows that had a high
birth weight bred to bulls with high birth weight will likely produce
calves of high birth weight, which is not necessarily a good thing
because the cows can have problems giving birth to heavy calves. A
higher percentage of Caesarian deliveries can result, which means
higher veterinarian costs. Breeders have “plants” in their
pastures that are measured for a large number of characteristics. It
becomes a very complicated decision as to which bulls should be
combined with them. Emphasizing one characteristic can have
unintended long term consequences. If you want it bad, you get it
bad. If you want it worse, you get it worse. Embryo transfer and
cloning produce the intended consequence, but they always have
weaknesses which may appear for certain users of the product.
Of course, all of this can come to
nothing if the bull is laying in the shade two miles from the cow
that is ready to be bred.
And you thought that the life of a
cowboy was a simple one.
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