Determining the Variation in Certified Preconditioning Premiums for Heifers and Steer

This study applies separate hedonic models to Oklahoma Quality Beef Network data to determine differences in the value of preconditioning premiums for steers versus heifers. Results indicate that preconditioning values are generally lower for heifers but exceed steer premiums at higher weights. Separate treatment of steers and heifers is validated.Preconditioning, Steers, Heifers, Marketing,

The Affect of Animal Gender on Fed Cattle Producer Marketing Behavior

Weekly grid market share by volume for slaughter steers is compared to slaughter heifers. Summary statistics indicate average grid market share for steers (42%) is 27% higher than slaughter heifers (33%). The literature indicates that pregnancy and increased dark cutter incidence associated with heifers relative to steers creates additional financial risk when heifers are sold on a grid. Econometric analysis suggests grid market share is less sensitive to change in market conditions for heifers relative to steers. The empirical evidence is consistent with the supposition that marketing heifers is riskier than marketing steers on a grid. Thus sellers need stronger economic incentives to market heifers on a grid relative to steers.grid pricing, fed cattle, animal gender, risk, Livestock Production/Industries, Q00,

Herbage intake in Danish Jersey and Danish Holstein steers on perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture

The objective of this study was to estimate herbage intake in Danish Friesian and Danish Jersey steers at an age of 8-9 months on ryegrass / white clover pasture. The steers were turned out on pasture in late April and herbage intake was estimated in June in steers of a mean live weight (± S.D.) of 264 ± 14 kg and 185 ± 25 kg for Danish Friesian and Danish Jersey respectively. Faeces and herbage samples were analysed for alkanes to estimate herbage dry matter intake, dry matter digestibility (DMD) and botanical composition of intake. The weight gains at the time of herbage intake estimation in June (kg/day) were 1.142 ± 265 kg/day and 0.927 ± 168 kg/day for Danish Friesian and Danish Jersey respectively. Daily herbage intake (kg dry matter (DM)) estimated by alkanes C32 /C33 was 8.33 ± 0.97 and 6.28 ± 0.61 per day (P<0.001) and 3.15 ± 0.32 and 3.43 ± 0.30 per 100 kg liveweight (LW) (P<0.05) for Danish Friesian and Danish Jersey respectively. The botanical composition of the diet was the same for Danish Friesian and Danish Jersey with about half of the diet being grass leaves and the other half clover leaves. It is concluded that Danish Jersey steers have higher herbage intake per 100 kg LW than Danish Friesian steers of the same age, but herbage intake per kg metabolic LW is not different between the two breeds

The Effects of Emotion-Focused versus Instrumental Rumination on the Provision of Social Support

Victims of negative events often report that they do not receive the expected and desired social support (e.g., Dunkel-Schetter, 1984). The current study investigated the impact of two types of victim rumination and gender role expectations on support provision and receipt. Using a 2 (Instrumental vs. Emotion-Focused Rumination) x 2 (Victim Gender) x 2 (Participant Gender) between-subjects factorial design, 136 undergraduate students interacted with one of four "burglary victims" for eight minutes, providing both behavioral and questionnaire data. Results suggest that instrumental ruminators receive more support than emotion-focused ruminators. Women provided more support to victims than did men. Additionally, male victims' coping was evaluated more positively than female victims' coping, regardless of rumination type

What is Godly Speech? (Chapter 7 of Redeeming How We Talk: Discover How Communication Fuels Our Growth, Shapes Our Relationships, and Changes Our Lives)

Excerpt: The Bible makes it clear that the tongue has tremendous power. James compares it to a rudder, which steers a whole ship. A rudder is only a fraction of the size of the boat it steers. While the rudder may have the power to steer an entire ship, someone is standing at the helm, responsible for the direction of the rudder and ultimately the ship and all the lives on it. We are in control of our tongues, and we are responsible for the direction we turn them

The impact of gastrointestinal parasites on weight gain, activity patterns and behaviours in cattle on pasture

Infections caused by gastrointestinal parasites are one of the most problematic health concerns for cattle all around the world. These parasites may cause a wide range of health problems ranging from subclinical disease to actual death. Animals infected with parasites usually respond to sickness with predictable pattern of behavioural changes. The aim with this master thesis was therefore to evaluate whether there were any differences in behaviour, activity patterns and weight gain between animals given a dose of parasites and animals treated with anthelmintics. The study was performed at Götala Beef and Lamb Research Centre outside Skara, between 18 May and 15 September in 2016. The research animals consisted of 63 steers, where 31 of them were of dairy breed (Swedish Holstein, SLB, or Swedish Red, SRB) and the other 32 steers were crossbred animals (SLB/Charolais and SRB/Charolais). Two pastures were used consisting of permanent semi-natural pastures. The animals were divided into two separate groups with 31 and 32 animals in each group, were each group consisted of half purebred and half crossbred steers. One group of steers were given an oral dose of the parasites Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora while the other group was treated with anthelmintics. The body weight recordings were performed bi-weekly on Tuesdays and consisted of 10 weighing periods during the summer. In order to measure the activity patterns IceTags were placed on 20 animals, 10 in each group. The behaviours of each group of steers were recorded using direct observations that were performed during selected weeks with start in May. Mean number ± SE was calculated in percentages for each category of behaviour. The current study revealed that parasitized steers had a lower weight gain throughout the pasture period than steers treated with anthelmintics (P<0.005). The average daily weight gain during different periods throughout the pasture period was significantly affected by treatment (P<0.0001) and period (P<0.0001). Anthelmintic treated steers had a higher mean daily weight gain during 31 May-14 Jun (P<0.0001), 29 Jun-12 Jul (P<0.0001) and 6-20 Sep (P<0.05) than infected steers. Significant interactions between period and treatment were also found on motion index and the number of steps taken, where the motion index (P= 0.0005) and the number of steps taken (P<0.05) was significantly higher in steers treated with anthelmintics. Significant interactions between period and treatment were also found on the number of lying bouts as well as the duration of lying and standing. The number of lying bouts was higher in steers infected with parasites (P<0.05) during 12-26 July. The duration of standing were higher in parasitized steers (P<0.05), while the duration of lying were higher in the anthelmintic treated steers (P<0.05) during 9-23 August. The results from the behavioural observation showed a different result where the infected steers appeared to walk more and lie less, which contradicts with the results from the Icetags. Moreover, social behaviours such as sniffing and licking others appeared to occur more frequently in steers with high parasite load than in steers with low parasite load. This study demonstrated that gastrointestinal parasites in steers at pasture cause a reduced daily weight gain and a decreased general activity level per 24 h, but an increased general activity level during day time

Investigations into variation in growth performance of cattle at pasture : a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Masters in Applied Science (Animal Science) at Massey University

The aim of this experiment was to examine relationships between the growth rate (LWG) and estimates of voluntary feed intake, feed conversion efficiency (GFE), temperament, susceptibility to chronic (longer-term) stress, indices of mature weight and indices of metabolic rate within groups of similar cattle run together. Sixty Hereford x Angus cross 9 month old male cattle (30 bulls and 30 steers) were allocated to either the fastest growing two-thirds or slowest growing third (Restricted-Slow Group (RS)), based on their growth rate over a 100 day period commencing on d0. The fastest growing two-thirds were randomly allocated between the Fast (F) and Restricted-Fast (RF) groups. Restriction of growth of the RF and RS treatment groups commenced on d112. Treatment group F cattle (10 bulls, 10 steers) were grown rapidly to achieve slaughter weights of 550 and 525kg for bulls and steers at 16-18 months of age, respectively. Treatment group RS and RF were fed to achieve a similar weight at about 25 months of age. The trial was therefore a 3 x 2 factorial with 3 growth path groups and 2 castration groups. Bulls gained 18% faster than steers in the F treatment group up to slaughter (1.10±0.03 and 0.93±0.03kg/d, respectively, P<0.001). No significant difference was found between live weight gains of bulls and steers of the RF and RS groups(0.56±0.02 vs. 0.51±0.02kg/d, respectively, NS). Organic matter intakes (OMI) measured using chromium intraruminal capsules ranged between 1.45-170,1.19-1.53, 0.89-1.02 and 0.94-1.20kg OMI/100kg LWT/d for the four separate intake periods. These values were all lower than predicted values, reflecting possible poor pasture quality and/or inaccurate measurement of OMI. During the d90-100 period under ad libitum feeding the bulls were significantly more efficient than the steers (0.24±0.01 vs. 0.18±0.01kg LWG/kg OMI,P<0.001), and F and RF cattle had significantly higher feed conversion efficiency (GFE) than RS cattle (0.23±0.0l vs. 0.16±0.02 kg LWG/kg OMI, P<0.005). During the later intake periods the fast-growing F treatment group was significantly more efficient at food conversion than the restricted groups (RF and RS) on all occasions. No differences in temperament, as assessed by stepping rate and subjective scoring in a weigh crate, and flight distance measures, were found between bulls and steers. The RF treatment group had a consistently lower, but not always significantly different, temperament scores than the F or RS groups. Plasma cortisol levels were significantly (P<0.001) lower in bulls than in steers on all occasions. No sex differences existed in muscle glycogen content. Weight-adjusted withers heights was lower (P<0.05) in bulls than in steers on d208, 306 and 579, however there was no differences between the treatment groups. At slaughter the treatment F cattle had shorter carcass lengths, lighter livers, greater fat depths and kidney fat weights (P<0.001) than the RF and RS groups. Bulls had shorter femur bones, lower fat depth and kidney fat weight and liver weights, than steers (P<0.005) of the same carcass weight. Relationships were evaluated across all 60 cattle together by expressing each trait as a residual for each animal relative to the mean for its sex by treatment group. Measures of average daily gain, OMI, GFE and muscle glycogen levels were not very repeatable over time as measured by correlation coefficients. Temperament indices (range 0.31-0.71, P<0.05) and cortisol levels (range 0.29-0.48, P<0.05) were repeatable over time. Weight-adjusted height measurements (range 0.36-0.48, P<0.01) were also repeatable when all 60 cattle were measured. Relationships were investigated between various measurements and LWG prior to the measurement, LWG to 16 months of age and LWG to slaughter. No significant consistent relationships were observed between various long-term growth rates and either GFE, temperament, indices of-mature weight or -chronic stress. Moderate but inconsistent relationships were found between OMI and longer-term gain. It appears from this study that no consistent relationships between the various measurements and longer-term LWG exist in the cattle studied

Understanding the Market for Holstein Steers

A semi-structured interview process was combined with an econometric analysis to document the newly changed structure of the Holstein sector, to evaluate existing quality perceptions, and to assess the impact that recent changes in production practices have had on prices of Holstein steers. Results suggest that finished Holstein steer prices are driven by many of the same market factors as native steers, overturning some common quality misconceptions. The shift towards the calf-fed production model appears to have greatly affected the market for backgrounded Holstein steers, but had little impact on the prices for light Holstein feeder steers.Marketing,

Direct Measurement of Turbulent Shear

A photon correlation method is introduced for measuring components of the shear rate tensor in a turbulent soap film. This new scheme, which is also applicable to three-dimensional flows, is shown to give the same results as Laser Doppler velocimetry, but with less statistical noise. The technique yields the mean shear rate s, its standard deviation, and a simple mathematical transform of the probability density function P(s) of the shear rate itself