The Rural Voice, 1998-12, Page 12LESLIE HAWKEN
& SON
Custom Manufacturing
Self Standing Yard Dividers
r
111 III
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8 THE RURAL VOICE
Scrap Book
Computer puts figures on bull's value
A new computer program
developed at the University of
Guelph can give beef cattle breeders
a real dollar value difference in
choosing one type of bull over
another.
Prof. Jim Wilton along with
research associates Marc Lazenby
and Steve Miller from the Centre for
Genetic Improvement of Livestock
have pooled their expertise and
developed the first-ever economic
selection tool (index) in North
America for beef bulls.
The tool combines all known
information about the bull —
information that's routinely
collected by Beef Improvement
Ontario (BIO) — and uses it to
calculate two Predicted Dollar
Difference (PD$) values for each
animal.
"Individual producers should
place a different emphasis on
varying traits for bulls, but this is
difficult," said Miller. "Producers
can now look at one simple dollar
value that represents all information
available on a bull. Choosing the
most profitable sire for a specific
situation will lead to increased
profits for breeders and producers."
A PD$ value represents the net
profit that will be generated by an
elite bull — above and beyond the
profit of the average bull — in his
progeny raised in one of two kinds
of beef production and marketing
situations.
For both supermarket and
restaurant -geared cattle types,
varying carcass traits (such as size
and marbling) mean different things
to producers: some traits spell
profits, others mean additional
costs. For example, the restaurant
industry is looking for an optimum
steak size with higher marbling
(intramuscular fat), whereas in the
supermarket trade, larger carcasses
are more profitable.
Normally, producers choose
sires for their operation based on
some of the bull's money -making
traits, but this new University of
Guelph indexing tool allows
producers to choose a sire — using
a value (PD$) that calculates all the
bull's traits, and the profit or loss
expected from them. And further
improvements to the software will
help vault it over the current
technology which doesn't account
for producers' various needs.
The researchers are collaborating
with BIO and are sponsored by BIO
and Natural Sciences and
Engineering Research Council.°
—Centre for Genetic Improvement
of Livestock Update '98
Feed additive lowers manure phosphates
While nitrogen levels in manure from intensive livestock and poultry
operations are usually the concern, when it comes to protecting surface water the
real problem is phosphorus. Phosphorus is a particularly difficult nutrient to
manage when applied to the soil because any excess to current plant require-
ments remains at or near the surface of the soil, bound tightly to soil particles. If
soil is eroded by surface run-off the phosphorus gets washed into the water.
Complicating the problem is the high level of phosphorus in swine and
poultry manure. About 66 per cent of the phosphorus in corn, for example, is
indigestible to pigs and poultry and is excreted. Feed rations for these animals
need to be supplemented with inorganic phosphorus to meet growth
requirements. Part of this, too, goes through the animals into the manure.
But a new phytase enzyme preparation called Natuphos, produced by
microbial fermentation, breaks down phytic acid into digestible phosphorus.
When added to pig or poultry diets, it allows phosphate supplementation to be
reduced which in turn reduces the amount of phosphorus excreted.
Natuphos can reduce the amount of phosphorus excreted by up to 30 per cent
but more typically by about 25 per cent. It means a 100 -sow, farrow -to -finish
farmer could spread his manure on 180 acres instead of 234 without overloading
on phosphorus.°
—Source: Country Guide