Beef shrink is profit shrink
By James D. Ritchie
Understand what stresses cause shipping shrink and work to avoid it.
You can start arguments on the subject of beef shrink. For one thing, most sellers don’t like to give it. That’s understandable. Cattle producers spend a lot of time and effort to make animals weigh as much as possible by market time and they don’t like to give any of that weight away. Say you are selling 500-pound steers and a buyer prices them with a 2 percent “pencil” shrink. In effect, you are giving away 10 pounds on each steer. That’s the equivalent of one free steer for each 50 head you sell.
On the other side, feedlots and order buyers know that when cattle are gathered, hauled, processed and held without access to feed and water for long periods of time, they lose weight. They “shrink.” These buyers are primarily interested in the delivered cost of cattle, and they price them accordingly. So-called pencil shrink more often is employed with cattle sold in private-treaty transactions.
“When it’s used, pencil shrink varies with the kind and condition of the cattle and the region of the country,” said Mike John, manager, MFA Health Track Beef Alliance. “From Missouri to feedlots in western Kansas or the Texas Panhandle, pencil shrink typically averages 2 percent to 3 percent of the animal’s selling weight. But, actual shrink is highly variable, as is the time it takes an animal to recover lost weight.”
And, actual shrink often is a lot more than would be reduced with a pencil.
“We recently loaded out steers at Joplin [Mo.] and took them to a feedlot at Tabor, Iowa,” said Eldon Cole, University of Missouri livestock specialist. “The cattle averaged 679 pounds at Joplin and weighed 638 pounds off the truck in Iowa.”
That was an average shrink of 41 pounds per steer (about 6 percent) for the 300-mile haul. However, the same individuals were consignors and receivers of the cattle, which are being fed on a retained-ownership basis.
Two kinds of actual shrink occur during the handling, marketing and transport of cattle. Cattle held off feed and water overnight experience “fill shrink,” the loss of rumen fill, manure and urine. This kind of shrink can be recovered quickly once feed and water intake returns to normal.
“Tissue shrink” refers to the loss of weight of the carcass itself and is primarily the result of loss of fluids from body cells, including blood cells. Tissue shrink generally occurs with extreme stress or extended periods without feed and water, as in long hauls, and takes longer to re-gain.
A study by David Lalman, Oklahoma State University livestock specialist, illustrates Mike John’s observation that shrink can be highly variable. Lalman checked the average weight of yearling cattle following a 5-hour haul and at several points before and after (see chart).
Tracking shrink from the farm
Weight time | Weight (avg.) | Percent Change |
|
At the farm(early morning) | 717 | -- |
Local Scales | 713 | -- |
Arrival at feedyard | 670 | -6.5 |
After 24 hours | 670 | -6.5 |
After 72 hours | 655 | -8.6 |
“There was considerable variation in weight loss—from 39 to 50 pounds—as well as the rate of recovery within each load of cattle,” said Lalman. “Cattle in this project had grazed fescue pastures prior to being gathered early on the day of shipment, none were sick during the study, and most had re-gained their preshipment weight by day seven.”
As a natural phenomenon, shrink is a sort of weak link in the cattle marketing system. But Mike John and Eldon Cole agree that shrink can be minimized by following sound practices:
• Calves weaned right off their mothers and cattle on lush pastures shrink
more than cattle that are pre-weaned and fed for several days
on a conditioning ration.
• If possible, avoid temperature extremes when moving and sorting cattle.
Extremes of heat and cold cause cattle to shrink more.
• Poor temperament can cost pounds. Flighty, high-strung cattle tend to shrink
more than calmer cattle especially if they are handled by flighty,
high-strung people.
• Avoid overcrowding cattle, in the pen or on the truck.
In the past, some producers tried to side-step shrink (actual or pencil) by gaming the system. They would pen cattle to a salty feed and then let the animals tank up on water just before sale.
“I’ve heard of those tactics, too,” said Cole. “But they don’t work. Order buyers see thousands of head of cattle and they don’t like cattle that appear to have been filled too much—they’ll take it off the price. You’re likely to be bid a better price on cattle that are slightly on the gaunt side, and that kind sure travel better.”
Shrink happens. And it affects everyone in the beef industry. Learning about beef shrink and its influence on profits is a first step in minimizing it.
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