Hello fellow Galloway breeders,

Harley's post brings up a question that I have had about a historical statement 
that I have heard before and wondered about "As we already know......the higher 
the roughage the ration is" I heard this statement after I had worked with my 
vet and fed 35 heifers a VERY hot ration for 45 days. The heifers did 
exceptionally well on this ration some gaining 8 lbs/day. I then sent 40+ mixed 
steers and heifers to a feedlot that was use to feeding Galloway cattle. The 
feedlot manager made the statement to me" that he supposed that I didn't want 
my animals to be fed the last finishing ration that all the other cattle got." 
(rations go in starter, middle and finishing stages) I told him that I wasn't 
sure were the idea came from that Galloway cattle did not do well on finishing 
rations, but that as far as I was concerned he was the expert in feeding cattle 
and it was his job to feed my cattle whatever he thought best. Over the next 
several years the feedlot fed my cattle to finish and grade just like all the 
other cattle in the lot. I retained ownership and got performance data on each 
and every one. As a group they averaged better than the other cattle in the 
retained ownership program. Feedlots and bull developing operations tend to 
feed higher roughage than they did twenty years ago, I wonder how well this 
statement still applies? Do the Canadian Galloway bulls get fed different in 
the feed efficiency trials than the other breeds? Do the steers at Olds College 
get fed differently than the other breeds? Maybe some Canadian can help educate 
me on this?

I learned a great deal about my cattle and some of the bloodlines I had in this 
experiment and the lessons resonate very loudly to me when they are seen as 
cold hard cash. A good amount for good animals and a smaller amount for not so 
good ones And the really strange lesson: the animal that looks the best does 
not always receive that largest amount of money. One of the biggest lessons: 
not all Galloway cattle marble before they put on backfat!! In fact some will 
get quite fat on the outside and still be Select Grade.

Galloways, just like the other breeds, have a wide variation of characteristics 
within the breed. There are bloodlines that will finish Choice or better Yield 
Grade 1 or 2 in the feedlot and that are bloodlines that will never do this. 
There are bloodlines that will do the same on grass and there are bloodlines 
that don't. Promotion of Galloways should always start with each individual 
Galloway breeder knowing their own animals. Never promote animals to do things 
that you don't know they will do.

I agree with Harley that the AGBA is for registration and promotion of Galloway 
cattle. We need good affordable ways of promoting both, the grass-fed industry 
type of cattle and the feedlot or mainstream industry type of cattle. Deb 
Vance's work on Brisket Disease or Judy Decker's Grass Genetics conference come 
right to my mind. Get involved!! It's the breeders that need to spearhead these 
type of things and it is the AGBA's role to provide assistance as it can. 

Sarah Bowman
Hang 5 Galloways

PS  I can't help myself, I need to share with everyone some of the currents 
that are flowing in the grass fed industry. When was the last time any Galloway 
breeder has talked to someone that runs a thousand cows and wants to run 
Galloway bulls? When was the last time that some breeder has talked to someone 
that wants to buy 10,000 Galloway cows? When was the last time..... wants to 
buy truckloads of Galloway steers? If you are active in the grass-fed circles 
the answers to all of these would be within the last TWO YEARS!!


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harley & Michelle Blegen 
  To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 10:46 AM
  Subject: Re: Fwd: Ration to Increase CLA Yields More Marbling


  Hi everyone, I would like to start off by saying I agree with Kevin, that we 
have the breed that does this naturally.  However, I would like to thank Steve 
for bringing this to our attention.  The AGBA is an organization for the record 
keeping and promotion of Galloway cattle.  We are not, and cannot all be grass 
finishers.  Some of us don't have enough grass, or the right grass to justify 
it.  That doesn't mean our cattle can't finish on grass, just that we don't.  
We already know that in a feedlot, Galloways perform better, the higher 
roughage the ration is.  If there is information out there that can help 
Galloway breeders produce a better product, I applaud the effort of letting us 
all in on it.  Thank you Steve.

  Promoting Galloways

  Harley Blegen

  Please note: message attached


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