e105. Lasater Philosophy of Cattle Raising-Part 1

Transcript generated by Podium.page Help us spread the word by tweeting about us at @podiumdotpage and including us in your shownotes! https://podium.page 0:00:01 - Cal Welcome to the Grazing Grass Podcast, episode 105. You're listening to the Grazing Grass Podcast, sharing information and stories of grass-based livestock production utilizing regenerative practices. I'm your host, cal Hartage. You're growing more than grass. You're growing a healthier ecosystem to help your cattle thrive in their environment. You're growing your livelihood by increasing your carrying capacity and reducing your operating costs. You're growing stronger communities and a legacy to last generations. The grazing management decisions you make today impact everything from the soil beneath your feet to the community all around you. Easy to follow techniques to quickly assess your forage, production and infrastructure capacity in order to begin grazing more efficiently. Together, they can help you grow not only a healthier operation, but a legacy that lasts. Learn more on their website at nobleorg slash grazing. On their website at nobleorg slash grazing. It's nobleorg forward slash grazing. On today's episode, we are talking about the Lassiter philosophy of cattle raising. This episode wasn't on my schedule. I decided to record it because of the Herd Quitter podcast. I was catching up on the Herd Quitter podcast yesterday and I got to episode 163 with Alan Williams. If you haven't listened to it, go listen to it. Even go now. You'll get more value out of it. It's a tremendous episode. On it. Alan was discussing his cattle raising philosophy, epigenetics and selection and how it's changed over the decades, which caused me to think of the Lassiter philosophy of cattle raising. Growing up, it was one of the few books on my dad's bookshelf. Growing up, it was one of the few books on my dad's bookshelf. My mom has always been an avid reader, but my dad not so much. Sure, he reads a lot. He utilizes websites, he's reading a newspaper or magazines all the time, but he's just not a book reader. You know what I mean. However, this book was on his bookshelf and he would refer to it when we were talking about decisions about cattle. I can remember the conversations at an early age. Because of this, I read the book early in my life and I currently have it on my own bookshelf. It has guided me in my livestock raising. It has guided me in my livestock raising. The Lassiter Philosophy of Cattle Raising is by Lawrence Ilm Lassiter and was published in 1972, same year I was born. Lawrence's dad is Tom Lassiter, who developed the Beefmaster breed using the principles outlined in that book, and it's a nice read. You can finish it in one evening. A nice, short, easy read, but tremendous information in it. So we're going to talk a little bit about his philosophy and it really centers around the five commandments of livestock breeding. You know, when we say commandments maybe that may be too harsh a word. You may prefer pillars. So I like to think about it as the five pillars of livestock breeding. The first pillar is to only select for the six essentials, which are disposition, fertility, weight confirmation, milk production and hardiness. Milk production and hardiness For me disposition. I find so very important and I know different people have different tolerances on disposition. But I want to be able to move my cows, work with them and I say cows, any type of animal, work with them, etc. Without problems. I've always leaned towards calmer cattle and it used to drive my dad crazy when I was a teenager and would make pets out of cows. Granted, he is right, they can become too much of a pet at times. I don't know why I've always leaned that way, but I do have three experiences that really made it a priority in my breeding program. Growing up we lived on the dairy and we AI'd everything or artificially inseminated our cows. However, we would keep a bull for cleanup and if you've been around dairy bulls you know they can get mean On two separate occasions, with two different bulls. Both my parents were hurt by a bull. Dad was pushed against the fence by a bull and then, when the bull stepped back, dad fell to the ground and was able to roll under the fence For mom. A bull pushed her over the fence. Obviously both their egos were hurt and they were bruised, but otherwise they were okay. But those are are defining moments for me as I think about it. The third experience, even more so At the time we were feeding our calves after we weaned them till they got up to around 800 pounds and they would get pretty nervous at that size by the time we sold them. I was at work one day and Dad was loading the calves out. They ran into the trailer, hit the front of it and immediately turned around and shot out of that trailer. Dad was working the gate and couldn't get it closed in time. They hit the gate, knocked dad off his feet and back and ran out. I'm still amazed that dad didn't get stepped on. He was basically unhurt. But from that day that was a very defining moment and we've made a very conscious effort to choose calmer bulls. This has really helped our herd become easier to handle and calmer. Thus we select for disposition. Secondly, we handle our cows with low-stress handling methods and I think that makes a world of difference. I'm not great at it but I think I could do a good job. And on low low stress handling methods, simple Grandin has a wonderful book that covers a lot of things on that and I would suggest you pick that up. One other practice that we have started that anytime my cows are near the barn I run them through our working pens. We have pens set up. We have a tub, an alley, a squeeze chute. We have scales there. If they're close to the barn, I bring them in and then I push them through the alley and out the chute. I've done it enough that basically I push them in there and I open all the gates and they know to walk through that. Basically I push them in there and I open all the gates and they know to walk through. I do it very calmly and they, when it's time to work cattle, I'm able to bring them in and they will almost feed themselves through the chute and alley. It's amazing. It does make a world of difference for those animals and I also believe that first experience in a squeeze chute should not be traumatic. Let's get those calves following cows through the alley, through the chute before we work those animals. It takes a little bit of time but by doing that it'll make all the difference on the day you work cattle. Moving on from the first essential of disposition, the second one is fertility, and I think fertility is a huge one. But it also falls into his second pillar, so we're going to save that for our next episode. The third essential is weight. For Lasseter, he selected males based upon weaning weight and post-weaning gain. For females, he only based it on weaning weights of their calf. For us, I use a spreadsheet and weigh cows and calves on weaning day and Lasseter did something interesting with that. He weighs the calves on two separate days and averages the two weights to get a calf's weight. It was the way he did it. That sounds a lot more work and I'm a lazy farmer or efficient farmer, and you know efficient is just lazy with good PR. Back to the cows. I look at the percentage of a cow's weight that is her calf, and we use that and I'm sure lots of people's herds are already here, but we're working for the cows to wean over 50% of their weight at weaning and we usually wean at eight and a half to nine months of age. We're not to the point of not weaning calves that a lot of people talk about. I like the idea. I haven't done it yet. I have considered it for the past couple of years and for a couple of reasons that didn't happen. This may be the year I try it on a set. The fourth essential is confirmation. At first glance I'm not overly concerned with confirmation. Sure, there are things that I would call for and I would not want, but in the end I want cattle that will work and with that whatever body type. That is For Lassiter. He says the ideal confirmation is exemptified by that animal whose carcass will yield the most pounds of tender lean beef per pound of live weight, and does not believe that you can do that by only visual appraisement of the animal. However, he does say you can appraise structural soundness visibly. That word's kind of hard for me to say, and he says something that I find so important Bulls should look like bulls and cows should look like cows. The fifth essential is hardiness. A hardy animal is an animal that survives with a minimum of inputs. I like to think that not using outside inputs to prop up animals' performance is a great start. In fact, listening to Alan Williams on the Herd Quitter podcast makes me wonder about even the use of minerals. He said we should be stopping the use of any supplement. If you listen to that episode and come away with a different understanding, let me know in the grazing grass community and just go on that rabbit trail for just a moment. I am really enjoying the grazing grass community and discussion there. People are asking questions and getting a variety of answers. I appreciate people respecting the opinions of others and having civil conversations, civil discussions. We don't have to agree, we can talk about it. Thank you, and if you aren't a member, I have to do this plug. If you aren't a member, go on Facebook, search for the grazing grass community and join us. The last of the six essentials is milk production, and what Laster says on milk production is pretty short. Evaluating a calf's weaning weight is a great indicator of a cow's milk production, and the cheapest gains are from birth until weaning. When I think about that, I think it all comes out in the wash If I'm selecting for cows that wean a high percentage of their body weight as a calf and they breed back. So that fertility piece and that weaning weight piece, that milk production is going to take care of itself. Because if that cow gives too much milk she is going to have trouble breeding back. On the other hand, if she doesn't give enough milk she's not going to wean a calf. That's 50% of her body weight. Pretty simple, and actually that goes with one of Lasseter's pillars we'll cover in the next episode. I think we'll probably cover pillars two through five next week's episode. However, before we finish for today, laster talks about three steps to starting a good breeding program and I thought they were really insightful. Step one choose a breed that can do what you want it to do. For example, if you're going to market grass-fed beef, choose a breed that can do that. Choose a breed that excels there. Don't try and reinvent the wheel. Step two buy the best genetics you can afford. If you're like me, you're on a shoestring. To me, this is where registered animals really come in, because you know the percentage and the production of them. But for me I'm buying commercial. I know it's a gamble of varying degrees how much we know about that animal. But whatever you do when you're buying animals, buy animals that are produced in your environment or near your environment with the management style you want. That will save you countless years. I say that, and on the registered end, I haven't purchased too many because of the shoestring budget as we talked about, but in the future I plan to purchase some. But I also know that registered animal does not mean it's a good animal. Sure, I think it increases the chances of it being a good animal, but I think it more says there's potential for it to be a good animal. And the last step he mentions I think is the most interesting of all the steps he says once you get to where you want to get with the genetics, once you have the best genetics available in your herd, close your herd and start raising your own bulls and heifers. I think that production method is the one that you can really see great gains in your cow herd. In producing a cookie cutter care cookie cutter replacements is when you close that herd and start line breeding. To a certain extent, you know line breeding is is inbreeding when it works. That's a little bit of a joke and that minimizes the difference between line breeding and inbreeding. But there is a little bit of truth in that as well. Granted, doing a close herd is much tougher for a small herd and a lot of people would argue it's not feasible. Don't try it with a small herd. However, this is subject to change, but currently I believe you can start it when you have the right genetics and enough land available to raise bulls. On the other hand, we'll see how it goes. We did raise our kept our own bull calves a couple years ago and we used them for one season with some other bulls, so I really didn't get to see the effect. I would like to go more in that direction because I think that has the most potential for, like I mentioned earlier, to create those cookie cutter animals that excel in my environment. You know when I think about buying bulls and bringing them in. If you've got good cows and they're doing what you want, I think double down on their genetics. Keep a bull from your best cow. Granted, you need to have good genetics in place, good cattle, but when you go, look at bulls and they're similar to the bulls you're raising, I think keep your own. We did that one year, didn't really lean into it too much. It is somewhere I would like to go eventually. I still have some work getting the genetics I want in the herd and dad's herd is really where I'm talking. So my herd is very young in my management and I've purchased cows, so my herd is not quite ready to do that, but I do have some excellent cows that I think. If I had a bull raised out of one of those cows I would consider it. However, I did have one last year and he was too nervous so he got turned into a steer Because, like I talked about, disposition is so very important. In closing, go listen to episode 163 of the Herd Quitter podcast and I suggest you read the Lassiter Philosophy of Cattle Raising and apply it to your livestock breeding program, whether that's cattle, sheep, goats, water buffalo, whatever it may be. If you're interested in purchasing the Licester Philosophy of Cattle Raising, it gets kind of tricky. You cannot go to Amazon and buy it. Let me clarify you can go to Amazon and there's some very expensive used books there. Don't go there. If you want to buy it, go to isabeefmasterscom and you can buy an e-book there or you can buy a paperback. I do suggest, if you're breeding livestock and doing a breeding program, that you purchase it and read it. It's a really quick read, but it's well worth it. It and read it. It's a really quick read, but it's well worth it. I hope today's episode has been valuable to you. If you've got any questions, you have some discussions, some things. You disagree with me. Visit the Grazing Grass community and let's talk about it. Thank you for listening and if you found something useful, please share it. Share it on your social media. Tell your friends, get the word out about the podcast. Helps us grow. If you happen to be a grass farmer and you'd like to share about your journey, go to grazinggrasscom and click on Be Our Guest. Fill out the form and I'll be in touch. We appreciate your support by sharing our episodes and telling your friends about it. You can also support our show by buying our merch. We get a little bit back from that. Another way to support the show is by becoming a Grazing Grass Insider. Other way to support the show is by becoming a Grazing Grass Insider. Grazing Grass Insiders enjoy bonus content, monthly Zooms and discounts. You can visit the website grazinggrasscom, click on support and they'll have the links there. Also, if you haven't left us a review, please do. It really helps us, as people are searching for podcasts and I was just checking them and we do not have very many reviews for 2024. So if you haven't left us a review, please do. Until next time, keep on grazing grass. Transcribed by https://podium.page