By Kay Ledbetter
Texas A&M AgriLife is partnering with beef producers across Texas to optimize production efficiency and sustainability of cow-calf and stocker operations.
The Texas Beef Cattle Efficiency Initiative is designed to help ranchers identify and adopt management practices that deliver measurable efficiency gains, lower input costs and safeguard grazing land resources.
Leading the educational project are Jason Smith, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service beef cattle specialist and associate professor, Texas A&M Department of Animal Science, Amarillo, and Jeff Goodwin, Ph.D., director of the Texas A&M Center for Grazinglands and Ranch Management and assistant professor, Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, Bryan-College Station.
“By working directly with individual cow-calf and stocker operations, we can help ranchers gain the knowledge, tools and support necessary to improve production efficiency in areas that they identify as valuable,” Smith said. “In addition to added revenue and decreased input costs, the ranchers who participate in the project should expect to learn how to adopt practices that support the long-term sustainability of their operation.”
Goodwin said the program focuses on building producer knowledge and confidence.
“Through collaborative projects like this, we can contribute to a stronger, more resilient Texas beef supply chain,” he said
Matching operations with practices that make cents
The project, supported by funding from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, McDonald’s Corporation, and Golden State Foods, is designed to provide Texas beef cattle producers with customized programming and educational resources, allowing them to choose the strategies that best match their goals.
Many practices are already recognized as “best practices,” Smith said, but adoption can be uneven due to barriers ranging from cost to uncertainty about results.
“Because of the variety that exists in grazing beef operations, most things are not one size fits all,” he said. “Producers may adopt certain practices, but not others due to simple barriers that need to be overcome. We want to help connect the dots at the ranch level to help producers identify other practices that may benefit their operation.”
In addition to the tangible economic benefits from these practices, producers participating in the project should also expect environmental gains, such as reduced nutrient losses and improved grazing land health, he said.
Source : tamu.edu