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Evaluating Beef Cattle Performance for a Register of Merit^*

U. S. Department of Agriculture

Abstract

The idea of attempting to say, without qualification, that one beef animal is better than another, on the basis of performance, is one which a great many of us have been shying at for a great many years. Put two beef calves in the show ring with a competent judge, and most of us are willing to say that the calf which the judge places first is the better calf. Even though we disagree with his judgment, we have, by that act, reached a decision of our own. Seldom do we admit that we do not know.

Put those same two calves in a performance test; record their birth weights and rates of gain and feed consumption per hundred pounds of gain; slaughter them and calculate their dressing percentages, and judge the quality of their flesh and fat; even go so far as to have a group of experts taste of their cooked ribs; and when you have all these facts assembled it is next to impossible to persuade any group of conscientious animal husbandmen to come out flat-footed and say that one calf, on its record, is better than the other.

^* NOTE: Mr. Sheets presented in conjunction with this paper a mimeograph presenting an experimental procedure for handling record-of-performance calves. This plan is printed following this paper.