Growth Hormones-What do they mean?

A growth hormone implant tablet is a small self-dissolving, time-released pill that is placed under the skin of the calf’s ear. Usually calves on feed receive three implants at different intervals within a 200 day feeding period.

Hormones, such as progesterone, and estradiol benzoate, are administered to the animal, but in higher doses than their bodies are already producing. The added level of hormone increases the animal’s appetite, so it consumes more feed. The animal gains more weight and more efficiently converts the energy intake to greater muscle growth. All of this equals more pounds produced per animal.

Subsequently, this may be the reason why we see “no added hormones” labeling on food products. All animals have naturally occurring hormones of course. "No added hormones" labeling implies that the animal has not received extra hormones it did not naturally produce.

Once a rancher sells his cattle to a feedlot, the rancher has no more control over that animal. There are a small percentage of ranchers who raise their own cattle, retain ownership of their animals throughout the feeding period, and then retain ownership at the slaughterhouse (also known as a “packer”). Order buyers or cattle brokers buy most of cattle at local sale barns or straight from a ranch. Selected lots are then sold to buyers such as investors, feed yard owners, or possibly other ranchers looking to diversify their revenue streams.

ECONOMIC BREAKDOWN
Here’s the actual data on two calves, and the economic impact of using, or not using, hormone implants on a beef animal:

DATE: 12/6/11
BASE WEIGHT (WT.) OF A STEER: 550 LB.
RATION COST (GRAIN COST): $390.00/TON
BREED COMPOSITION: AVERAGE SOUTH TEXAS STEER-BRAHMAN INFLUENCED

CONVERSION GAIN (per day) OUT WT. DAYS ON FEED
WITH IMPLANT 5.8 3.2 1300 234
WITHOUT IMPLANT 6.75 2.94 1238 234

CALCULATING COST TO ARRIVE AT DESIRED “OUT WT.” OR SLAUGHTER WEIGHT:
OUT WT. – BASE WT.=750 LB. X CONVERSION X COST OF FEED PER TON= X

COST RESULTS:
IMPLANTED STEER $848.25
NON-IMPLANTED STEER $905.58

As you can see, the non-implanted steer cost $57.33 more to feed versus the implanted steer. Then multiply the cost by the average feed yard pen of 60 head of steers and that equates to $3,439.80 in total added cost to the rancher or feeder.

The real problem is the fact that there are very few mainstream markets today that pay a premium to ranchers or feeders to withhold implants from their animals. There is no incentive to the feeder not to implant or use hormones in order to leverage their investment.

This phenomenon is one of the reasons for the recent availability of all natural or organic beef at farmers markets today. Producers were tired of having to conform to a larger industrial markets, and receiving no incentive for extra effort made to their product. Farmers markets and direct web marketing have made a wonderful proving ground for many ranchers or producers who seek to capture premiums for their homegrown product.

Hopefully this has given you a little insight into the world of hormone-implanted beef. As I said before, hormone implants are the mainstream of the market, the industry standard.

Although, let’s be thankful there are beef producers who are willing to take an economic risk not to implant their cattle. If consumers insist on the cheapest product, there are ways of making beef cheaper, like growth hormones. Consumers are finally demanding hormone free beef, and we, as cattle producers, are more than happy to oblige.

McAllen Ranch does not use growth hormones of any kind at any time in their cattle.

Posted by McAllen Ranch on Feb 06, 2012

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