The association on Friday announced the Canadian Beef Breeds Council (CBBC) has officially joined the Beef Cattle Research Council and Canfax among the divisions of the CCA. The move follows a cost-benefit review by an advisory committee.

CCA and CBBC “have worked closely together on a number of initiatives, so the integration made sense from both a logistics and a philosophical perspective as both organizations work to grow the industry,” the CCA said in a release.

“Having CBBC as a division of CCA further unites our industry under one roof, which will return more value to beef producers for their investment,” CCA president Bob Lowe said in the same release.

CBBC incorporated in 1994 as a national not-for-profit body working on behalf of Canada’s beef breeds and 8,000 registered beef cattle breeders, with a mandate to support, promote and represent the Canadian beef cattle seedstock sector.

While the Calgary-area organization doesn’t directly buy or sell genetics or live breeding cattle, it works to connect buyers and sellers and to promote beef breeds’ genetic attributes both within Canada and internationally, crafting international promotional initiatives and developing marketing strategies.

“This is an important time in the Canadian cattle industry and aligning organizations with similar goals will create opportunities that will have long-term benefits for the entire beef industry,” CBBC president Dave Sibbald said in Friday’s release.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has shown the beef sector “needs to work together to address challenges as they arise,” the two groups said.

Having strong organizations, “with the capacity to deal with any situation, is key to building and maintaining resiliency in the Canadian beef industry,” they said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post Beef Breeds Council becomes arm of CCA appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

South Africa is in the worst drought in 100 years, so bad that cattle farmers in other provinces have had to sell some of their stock. But in the diverse agricultural region of the Western Cape, farmers graze on marginal lands, and cattle breeds such as Afrikaners, Angus, Nguni, and Sussex are thriving. Sussex do well in South Africa, both as purebred stock and crossbred.

The cattle originated in England and can do well in Australia, South Africa, and Namibia, flourishing in both hot and cold climates.

But I’ve never seen a Sussex in Canada. Why not?

I studied the cattle with the owners of the farm, father and son Nollie and Pieter Stofberg, along with my tour guide for the day, Breyton Milford, the well-travelled operations manager of South Africa’s version of Northlands. None could say why there were no Sussex in Canada.

Back home, I did a quick Google search and discovered the only Sussex-cross cattle in Canada live at CL Ranches near Calgary, and so I called rancher Cherie Copithorne-Barnes to find out why.

It turns out that her cattle are a complete anomaly on the North American continent.

“We do have some Sussex in our herd that we were able to get from an Englishman who had a ranch down in Wyoming,” said Copithorne-Barnes.

That rancher has since passed away and his herd ceased to exist. Copithorne-Barnes doesn’t have any purebred Sussex on her farm anymore, but still has them in her genetic line.

“Frankly, the characteristics of Sussex — which are almost identical to Angus — worked really well,” she said. “But phenotypically, the cattle have been really tough to try and get through. I could have probably worked harder at producing a more purebred line of them.”

The Sussex-cross cattle at Copithorne-Barnes’ place have long toes. The breed is capable of foraging and walking long distances to find water.

“Really, they’ve got that instinctive survivor mentality and the ability to create a good carcass out of not a whole lot, which I like,” she said.

However, the cattle had problems with their udders and legs, and Copithorne-Barnes doesn’t use artificial insemination on her ranch. Instead, she prefers to take different traits and cross them to create an animal that thrives in her environment.

Her cattle still have some of the Sussex traits, and are a dark, red wine colour with a white muzzle and white tassel. She hasn’t had purebred bulls for two to three years, but Sussex traits are still coming through.

“We’ve never said that we’re going to be a breeder of any particular thing other than the animal itself as a whole,” she said. “Granted, the Sussex, if you were going to produce a grass-foraged animal, they would be it.”

Copithorne-Barnes also used Sussex to bring down her cow size.

“We were having 1,500- to 1,600-pound cows and it was just too much for their environment here,” she said. “They did bring it down, but the (animals) that were heavy on the Sussex, those cows were starting to mature around 900 to 1,000 pounds. They were way too small.

“It was just a matter of finding the balance. I never pursued it as hard as I should have. I never got the opportunity to travel to South Africa or to Australia or to any of the other places to find them.”

Sussex cattle in England have all been bred for the show ring, and that wasn’t what Copithorne-Barnes is looking for.

But while it appears no one else has raised Sussex in North America, that doesn’t mean people aren’t interested. Copithorne-Barnes gets tons of phone calls looking for genetics, even though she doesn’t have any purebred Sussex genes available.

“It just takes someone who has the ability to really hone in on wanting to bring in and go through the rigamarole of the purebred side of this,” she said.

She recommends that producers check out the website of England’s Sussex Cattle Society. For information about the South African cattle I saw, go to the Platdrif Sussex Stud website.

The post There’s a lot to love about Sussex cattle — but try finding any appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“One of the philosophies that we have here at CL Ranch is we’re not breed specific — we’re trait specific,” said Copithorne-Barnes, CEO of the 23,000-acre ranch near Calgary.

“We are synthetic cross-breeders, and we’re building calves to match this environment.”

And the environment is a unique one. Nestled in the rolling foothills near Kananaskis Country, CL Ranch has more than 2,000 head of grass-fed cattle that need to be sturdy enough to survive droughts and snowstorms.

For that, size matters.

“We’ve found that the ideal size of cows out here is about 1,250 to 1,300 pounds, and no bigger than that,” she said. “Our base herd — which was Hereford and Simmental with a little bit of brown Swiss — was really getting too large and was losing a lot of muscling in the hind end.”

So Copithorne-Barnes introduced an “old, traditional English breed” into the mix — the Sussex.

“From a characteristic perspective, personality, and carcass traits, they’re almost exactly like an Angus,” she said. “But it brought in some of the more compact characteristics that we need for these cattle.”

Sussex can “survive on a low-cost, forage-based ration and still perform.”

“We’ve got to be sure these cows can handle this grass, whether or not it’s green and lush,” she said. “They have to be able to forage out here for as long as possible, and their ability to forage and gain three pounds a day is really good.”

Solid feet, legs, teats, and udders are a must.

“We don’t allow for excuses. We aim for the perfect breeding, and we go from there by watching those phenotypic (observable) traits.”

But on their own, Sussex cattle are too small to stay competitive in the Canadian market. That’s where cross-breeding comes in.

“For that reason, we’re not married to any specific breed. We’re just trying to get that perfect cow that we know will do well out here,” said Copithorne-Barnes. “We’re breeding for traits, and traditional breeding has been done for bloodlines and characteristics within those bloodlines. We’re actually going after the individual phenotypic traits.”

But that approach comes with challenges, she said.

“The genomic side of things is coming and is advancing, but because of the different variations on the breeds that are going in, the heritability on it isn’t quite there yet. The science is getting better and better with each generation of equipment that’s being used. But unless you have 2,000 samples, they can’t guarantee that the genes are going to express themselves the same way it would if it were line bred.”

So simple observation remains key.

“We’re still on the phenotypic side, but we are very closely monitoring and learning that, through genomics, some of these traits are in fact holding true.”

Million-dollar genetics

It’s a different story at Rocky Mountain Holsteins, which specializes in — you guessed it — purebred Holstein cattle.

“We’re a little different than most dairies. We are what we call an elite breeding genetic barn,” said farm manager Ron Churchill.

“We don’t make our money by our milk cheque. We make our money off our breeding stock.”

The Cochrane operation — owned by David Chalack and Glenn Hockley — runs its 180-head dairy cattle herd on 240 acres of prime real estate. But they’re not in the dairy business.

“We only milk 30 cows, and probably 80 per cent of those are very elite genetic cows that we use for breeding stock all over the world,” said Churchill.

“We put a lot of money into our animals, and we get a lot of money out of some of them.”

Rocky Mountain Holsteins focuses almost solely on breeding stock — primarily embryo transfer and in vitro fertilization — but live animal sales are lucrative as well.

“Every two years, we have a genetics sale. In July, we sold 104 animals, and the average was $9,000,” said Churchill, adding one cow sold for $197,000.

In a two-year cycle, Rocky Mountain Holsteins makes around $1 million in sales, between embryos (which can run around $1,500 a pop), royalties on their bulls, and live animals.

But it takes money to make money, such as paying $60,000 for a single calf. But it was a profitable transaction — she eventually sold for nearly twice that after being bred and flushed of embryos for around 15 pregnancies.

Selling stock is never a challenge for the group.

“We do a lot on Facebook, and we have a website that we keep updated,” said Churchill, adding most genetics sales are into international markets.

“There’s people who know our cow families, and they’re following us. If we put on that we’ve got a cow we just flushed and got embryos out of, the phone’s ringing and they’re gone pretty quick.”

But how did Rocky Mountain Holsteins develop such a high-demand Holstein line? Through genomics, said Churchill.

“We test the calves for their DNA and what traits they would pass on,” he said. “What we hope is that when we DNA test them, we’ll get a good one or two out of the bunch that we can either breed from or market.”

Unlike the rest of the dairy industry, which looks for herd health traits like easy calving and good feet, Rocky Mountain Holsteins breeds for, well, breeding.

“When we’re breeding, we’re not breeding for a cow that’s going to stand in a barn,” said Churchill. “We’re breeding for a bull that’s going to work in a 3,000-cow dairy. We don’t want to make big cows. We want to make nice cows that milk hard and have less problems.”

The post The perfect cow: Two different approaches to getting the best genetics appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“My dad thought we were crazy,” said Ettinger, who farms with husband Grant Marchand near Czar in east-central Alberta.

But in the three years since the couple bought their first five Highland cattle, he’s come around.

“Now he loves them — he says he wants the hills filled with Highlands,” said Ettinger, who grew up on her family’s cattle operation just down the road from where she farms today.

When the couple moved back to the farm with their three kids in 2008, they knew that they would need to get creative to work around Marchand’s demanding oilfield job.

Highland cattle seemed like the perfect fit.

“We wanted something that was easy to work with, that calved easy, and that finished well on grass,” said Ettinger, who now has around 70 head of purebred registered cattle.

“Highlands are the whole package.”

For the most part, they’re docile and easy to manage — but come with a stubborn streak a mile wide.

“They’re super smart, and they’re stubborn,” said Ettinger. “When we’re bringing them in to vaccinate in the spring, there’s a few smart old girls, and what somebody else could do in a morning takes us from morning ’til dusk.”

Because they calve easily, some commercial breeders will use a Highland bull on their first-year calvers.

“They generally just spit them out, and their mothering instinct is strong,” she said, adding birth weights are usually between 50 and 75 pounds.

“Our first year calving, one of the cows ended up calving in February during one of the worst storms we’ve seen. But she just bunkered him down in bedding and stood over top of him during the storm, and he was fine.”

They’ll also eat anything — a real plus in a year like this one where drought and insect damage decimated pasture land across the province.

“Sometimes the pasture here isn’t the greatest, and these guys browse,” said Ettinger, who estimates their pasture land saw only about six inches of rain this year.

“They eat a lot of vegetation that the other cattle won’t eat.”

Lean but tender

Because they’re grass fed and smaller than most commercial cows — steers generally finish at around 1,000 pounds — they take a bit longer to finish.

“Our boys go in as close to 30 months as we can push it,” said Ettinger. “We try to send them into the butcher at the end of September and into October. After those fall grasses have hardened off, the sugar content goes up, and they just balloon.”

The animals that don’t make the cut for breeding stock go into the couple’s small meat program.

“This year, we butchered 11. Next year, we’ll have five,” she said, adding they participate in the Verified Beef Production program.

“We haven’t done much marketing because there isn’t much to do. It’s mostly been word of mouth.”

Highland cattle meat is “lean but well marbled,” she said.

“I always make sure people try it before they purchase a bigger order because it’s kind of in between bison and beef,” she said. “It has a little bit different texture, but it’s tender even though it doesn’t have a lot of fat in it.”

Their customers tend to be more a little more discerning than the average consumer.

“We make sure to match each customer with each animal. I can tell them everything about their animal. Some even ask for pictures.”

Preserving the breed

Ettinger is able to offer that level of detail because of the genetic records she keeps using a cattle management program her father designed called Herd Books.

“We don’t have that many in Canada, so knowing that pedigree is important to know that you’re not inbreeding,” said Ettinger, adding it’s also easier to cull bad stock that way.

“Preserving the breed is very important. Crossbreeding and mixing is certainly good, but I think it’s important to keep those original building blocks so if something goes wrong, you have something to come back to.”

Starting out with unregistered cattle likely “set (them) back a year,” and as they’ve been building the herd, they’ve kept “a few more bad bags” than they should have.

“Their offspring goes straight into meat, so we do have to fiddle a little more with those genetics.”

Despite some of the drawbacks that come with producing a relatively novel breed, interest in Highlands is growing in Canada, said Ettinger.

“We get calls every week from people looking for heifers or cows,” she said.

But Ettinger doesn’t expect that Highlands will replace more traditional Canadian cattle breeds any time soon.

“They just aren’t suited for a commercial operation, with the hair and the horns,” she said.

“Feeding them in a feedlot situation, you’d just end up with bruised meat because they would bump each other.

“There’s no way that, all of a sudden, the countryside is going to be overrun by Highland cattle.”

But there will be a few more near Czar — the couple is looking at expanding their herd to around 100 animals in the next few years.

“We’ve just fallen in love with them.”

The post Hardy Highland cattle right at home in the hills of east-central Alberta appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.