By Robyn Stewart, ANR Agent
In 1991, the University of Georgia, Georgia Cattlemen’s Association, Georgia Department of Agriculture, and other industry partners came together with hopes of helping farmers gather information regarding the quality of cattle they produce. Goals of the Georgia Beef Challenge included: improve the marketability of Georgia-bred cattle by establishing a database of feedlot performance and carcass information, and to provide educational information to Georgia cattlemen regarding the carcass merit of their genetics and explore the feasibility of retained ownership (beef.caes.uga.edu). Since the program’s inception in 1991, over 31,500 calves from Georgia cattle operations have been evaluated through the Georgia Beef Challenge program.
The Georgia Beef Challenge program works as follows: Georgia cattle producer completes and mails in the consignment form and is told where and when to deliver his calves. At delivery, calves are weighed, graded, and assigned a market price before being shipped to Iowa. Members of the Tri-County Steer Futurity (TSCF) feed out the calves, then harvest and market them based on carcass traits. The carcass and production data are then returned to the producer along with any additional profit that was generated based on carcass quality.
In order to participate in the Georgia Beef Challenge, some conditions must be met. Producers must be members of the Georgia Cattlemen’s Association in order to participate. Calves must meet standards for health including: weight between 550-800lbs at delivery; weaned at least 45 days prior to delivery; bull calves must be castrated at or before weaning; calves must be dewormed at the time of weaning with a preferred combination of injectable and paste dewormers; calves must be dehorned; and calves should receive two doses of a modified live respiratory vaccine and blackleg vaccine prior to weaning. At the time of delivery, the Tri-County Steer Carcass Futurity Cooperative (TCSCFC) board of directors purchase the calves for $5 each; allowing them to retain titles to the animals and borrow money for cattle expenses. Additional costs to the cattle owner include a $20 reservation fee and $10 data collection fee per calf and feed expenses, yardage, veterinary expenses, and other miscellaneous costs which are deducted from the animal’s sale price. Any additional profit after expenses will be returned to the original consigner.
An essential part of this program is risk management. Decisions for risk management (corn purchases, contract sale of cattle, hedging, etc) of Georgia Beef Challenge entries are made by a committee of consignors and managed by UGA. The Risk Management Committee works to help secure pricing objectives to maximize profit, limit losses, and help protect the value of cattle once they leave Georgia. Unless a producer or group of producers has entered enough cattle to provide a finish contract (40,000lbs) or more, the committee’s risk management decisions will apply. If a producer or group of producers can provide a full finished contracts worth of cattle (40,000 lbs) they may work through the Risk Management Committee to do their own risk management.
While the goal of the Georgia Beef Challenge is to help our producers be profitable with the calves they ship, the other major benefit is for producers to receive valuable carcass quality data. Understanding carcass quality data, yield grade, and quality grades can help producers make important management and breeding decisions to impact the sustainability and profitability of your herd. If you have questions about UGA Beef Programs and how to get started with them, reach out to us at uge3181@uga.edu or 706-359-3233.
