By Brad Haire
University of Georgia

A new University of Georgia project will turn information
gathered for individual farmers into a guide to better marketing
for all of the state’s cattlemen.

Since 1991, the Georgia Beef Challenge has allowed cattlemen to
learn more about the calves they produce. The program provides
to them detailed information about a calf’s weight gain in the
feedlot. And it details the carcass characteristics after
processing.

This has helped the farmers decide how to improve their herds’
genetics. (Most Georgia cattlemen have cow-calf operations.
Their products are calves that, after they’re weaned on the
farm, are sent to Midwestern feed lots. When they grow to their
mature weight there, they go to processing facilities.)

“The more a Georgia cattleman knows about his herd and the
individual calves he sells, the more successful he can be,” said
Curt Lacy, a livestock economist with the UGA Extension
Service.

The GBC has greatly helped individual farmers, he said. But the
information the program has gathered over 13 years hasn’t yet
been analyzed as a whole.

Lacy will spearhead a project that will analyze that data and
turn it into something all Georgia cattlemen can use. The
educational materials and programs that result, he said, will
help farmers make better decisions on managing and marketing
cattle.

Many farmers now are trying to find ways to add value to
whatever they grow. They’re trying to establish or get into
niche markets or produce products that get premium prices.

This project could reveal ways for Georgia cattlemen to do this
with their cattle, said Jim Collins, executive vice president of
the Georgia Cattleman’s Association.

A $46,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will
fund the UGA project in cooperation with the GCA.

The GBC is the largest program of its type in the Eastern United
States, said Robert Stewart, an animal scientist with the UGA
Extension Service. More than 12,000 calves have gone through the
program since it began.

“Detailed analysis (of GBC data) will provide statistically
sound evidence of the performance and carcass traits of the
Georgia cattle,” Stewart said. “More important, patterns over
time can be examined to determine any changes that might have
happened as a result of genetic selection.”

Cattlemen who have used the GBC, Stewart said, have been able to
shift the genetic direction of their herds toward the industry
targets as designated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association Beef Quality Audits.

The GBC has already helped the state’s cattlemen dispel the
reputation that their cattle were inferior to those in other
parts of the country.