Page 11 - SJ-Beef-Week-2023_Preview

Stock Journal Beef Week | 2023

The ranch in summer.

In 2016, the ranch began a year old for a more
a transition to summer reliable score - and at what
calving and is now selling elevation it is measured.
long-yearling bulls and “A 37 PAP score done at
heifers. 5000 feet is not the same
The extra age on these as a 37 at 7100 feet, for
cattle helps to ensure that example.”
they are mature, well-tested Ms Murphy said the
for pulmonary arterial ability to prosper at
pressure (PAP) and fertility, elevation was a heritable Angus bred to thrive in high elevation regions.
and ready to go to work in trait. CCR sells Angus
both spring and fall-calving seedstock to mountain which results in a much Within that, there are
herds. ranches not only in more productive animal.” 15,000 cattle ranches
PAP testing, Ms Murphy Colorado but Wyoming, - the largest around
explained, is an indicator New Mexico and Utah. Cattle state 73,000ha but the typical size
of resistance to blood CCR’s other animal Beef cattle is Colorado’s is 330ha.
flow through the lungs, welfare practices include number one agricultural Eighty per cent are family
and when measured at low stress cattle handling, commodity. The state has owned.
high altitude, is a reliable using horses and dogs the entire beef supply chain The state has varying
predictor of susceptibility of versus machines to covered, from producers to geography, from the plains
an animal to brisket disease, gather, and calm and feeders, packers, retailers of the eastern parts to the
a cardiac pulmonary non-threatening body and consumers. high mountain ranges and
condition that can occur at movements to load them It is home to around the more arid areas on the
elevation. into chutes and trailers. 2.65 million cattle and is western slope.
“Dr Tim Holt from “We are also judicious ranked fourth highest in The soils in the
Colorado State University about vaccinations, use the nation for cattle on feed mountains and eastern
comes to the ranch and of antibiotics and other numbers, which is typically plains are some of the most
tests all of our cattle medicines to ensure healthy around a million - or the fertile in the country and
including the yearling cattle,” Ms Murphy said. same number as the entire
heifers and bulls,” she said. “We check our herd often number on on feed in ranchers can grow excellent
“The process involves for signs of sickness, and Australia. hay, corn, oats and other
entering the jugular vein that their food, water and It’s also home to the animal feed products,
in the neck with a needle mineral supply are ample, headquarters for the Ms Murphy reported.
and threading a catheter especially during cold National Cattlemen’s Beef “One of things we are
into the right ventricle of weather. Association, the powerful quite famous for is our
the heart to measure the “We also employ low advocacy body for US manic weather,” she said.
pressure. stress weaning methods producers, as well as home “Within a 24-hour period
“At our elevation, scores using plastic nose tabs on to the Global Roundtable it can change radically.
below 45 will be kept as the calves and feeding a for Sustainable Beef’s We had a fall day at over
breeding animals, scores weaning supplement to offices. 27 degrees Celsius and
above are culled. transition from milk. Colorado has a land mass the next morning we woke
“The score varies based “Overall, it’s about of 26.8m hectares (or 66.3m up to four inches of snow.
on the age of the animal making sure the cattle are acres) and half is dedicated “Cattle and humans have
- they need to be at least thriving in our environment, to agriculture. to take that in their stride.”
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