Crossbreeding could offer part of the methane solution for beef

A Charolais breeder reveals how he maximises the amount of beef his herd produces for each kilogram of methane it emits.

Producing more kilograms of beef for every kilogram of methane emitted could see crossbreeding re-emerge as a go-to in the beef world.

That’s the belief of Charolais breeder Graeme Cook, whose family runs a mix of stud and commercial cattle at Charleroi and Fairyknowe.

Breeding stud Charolais cattle is the centrepiece and the major earner for the Cooks’ business, which is run across properties totalling 700ha in the picturesque valleys east of Wodonga.

It’s prime beef country, but it is dominated by black cattle, and it’s where Graeme hopes his focus on breeding something different could pay off in the future.

Crossbreeding could come to the fore due to the extra kilograms of beef produced through hybrid vigour when looking at meat grown for methane produced according to Rangan principal Graeme Cook.

“It is so well known that in crossbreeding, the hybrid vigour created in that first cross will give you an extra 10 per cent weight,” Graeme said.

“If you have maternal hybrid vigour – so say a black baldy cow – and you put a different breed over that cow, then the weight gains can be more than 20 per cent.

“At the moment, it is all about black cattle and hats off to them as they have done a great job of promoting what is a very good product.

“But I just feel down the track when we have to be accountable for the amount of methane we are producing, then we have to look at systems that are producing the greatest amount of beef for the methane produced and it could be the time that crossbreeding shines again.”

Graeme knows full well the benefits of a good crossbreeding program, as he runs a herd of about 100 Angus cows, which are joined to his own Charolais bulls.

These cows are run in native and improved country with bush areas, with the 1000mm rainfall producing a volume of hard, spring feed that the crossbred calves take advantage of.

Those Charolais-Angus calves road test the genetics he breeds from his pure Charolais, and are a litmus test of the bulls he is producing.

While some of the crossbred calves are taken on to bullock weights, a pen is usually reserved for the North East weaner sales, mainly to promote his stud operation Rangan.

This year, that pen topped the Wangaratta weaner sales and was one of only a handful that broke the $2000 mark over a week of sales in which thousands of calves sold.

The pen of 11, which were nine months, were weaned, weighed 413kg and sold for $2050 returning 496c/kg.

It wasn’t the highest cents-per-kilogram rate but it was the highest price for the Wangaratta sale – something that Graeme said needed to be considered and not only in terms of the most beef produced in any carbon accounting balance sheet.

“Producers need to think about how much beef they are producing per hectare, because you are paid on kilograms,” he said.

“It is something that we road test on our own commercial cattle, and knowing and seeing what they do off grass and with no supplementary feeding makes us really confident that we would fare better than other herds in terms of meat grown for the methane produced in our operation.”

Graeme admits it has been a long haul trying to promote and sell a breed that fewer people seemed interested in.

So saying, the stud earlier this year had a total clearance and lift in sale average in its autumn sale.

Being a third-generation producer in the area, with his family coming from the Upper Murray before settling at Charleroi, Graeme saw the benefits of Charolais cattle and their ability to put weight into herds.

From the start, it was all about the numbers and with the recognition that some producers were turned off from the breed because of the fear of big calves, Graeme made a determined effort to have the highest accuracy figures possible for birth weight and calving ease.

Rangan bulls sold recently were in the top 20 per cent of the breed for low birthweight and calving ease, important factors in convincing some producers to use Charolais.

Nearly all of the recently sold Rangan bulls had birthweight and calving ease figures in the top 20 per cent of the breed, and high accuracy for those figures, too.

The Rangan stud Charolais heifers calve first in June, giving them extra time to gain weight before being joined again, while the stud Charolais cows calve in July.

Calving times are tight, as all females are artificially inseminated in a fixed-time AI program.

“We have all the stud cows calving down at home because we need to weigh and tag the calves immediately, and we also want to know when they calve so we can accurately record gestation length,” he said.

“We know there is a criticism of Charolais of big calves, but with shorter gestation lengths and high calving ease estimated breeding values, the majority of our stud calves are being born at around 40-42 kilograms, which would be similar to a lot of Angus calves.”

The winter calving is a deliberate move to match the highest grazing pressure to the greatest feed peak in spring.

Graeme also wants the calves to be slightly older when there is the spring feed peak, so the calves can maximise the lift in milk production from the cows.

With that lift in spring feed and milk comes a lift in weight gain in the calves, and going back to the commercial operation, Graeme estimates gain for the Charolais-Angus at more than 1.5kg/head/day in spring.

He calculated the weight gain for the weaners that topped this year’s Wangaratta sale, and taking off an average of 40kg for birth weight, worked out they put on 373kg in nine months (the age where they were sold). That weight gain over 270 days worked out at about 1.4kg/head/day through winter, spring and early summer.

Breeding Charolais has been a long-term commitment for Graeme Cook from Rangan at Charleroi but he sees a big future for the breed in crossbreeding.

It’s that efficiency in putting on weight that is essential in today’s world where making the most of assets is not only important financially but on the sustainability balance sheet too.

“Our primary aim for our Charolais is to be able to get a good live calf on the ground but at the same time, have calves that will grow and make the most of the feed available,” Graeme said.

“Science and research will work it out, but crossbreeding could be set for a big comeback and how far that is in the future is anyone’s guess.

“We plant trees and we always have the environment we work in at the front of our minds but surely a system that produces more from the same resources has to be out in front when consumers start demanding more accountability.

“If you can get cattle off to market at a younger age at a higher weight that has to be good.”