Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 327: Why More Producers Are Turning to Gelbvieh and Balancer Cattle with Tom Strahm

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327: Why More Producers Are Turning to Gelbvieh and Balancer Cattle with Tom Strahm · CattleUSA Daily

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Today on the podcast, we are welcoming Tom Strom on to the
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podcast to talk about the Gallbe and Balancer breed of cattle.
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Tom is on today to share everything about the breed, from
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their advantages to the ways that he sees them being
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implemented in our commercial cattle herds across the United
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States today and how they're going to continue to grow and
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impact the cattle industry as a whole as they develop and grow
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into the future. Before we hop in today's podcast
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episode with Tom, if you're watching on YouTube, make sure
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you hit that subscribe button. And like this episode.
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If you're watching on any of our other podcast platforms, make
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review it and send it to a friend.
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If you enjoyed today's episode. Now without further ado, let's
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go ahead and hear from top. Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily
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Podcast, your go to source for the latest livestock markets,
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industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
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today. I'm your host Lauren Moylan, a
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passionate advocate for agriculture, here to keep you
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informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
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episode. Tom, welcome to the podcast.
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We are so excited to welcome you on today.
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I would love it if you could, just for all of our audience
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members out there, just kind of take it away and share a little
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bit about yourself and your story and what led you to the
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life that you're living today. So, well, good morning, Lauren.
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I appreciate the opportunity to visit with you and thank you for
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having me on here as a guest. My name is Tom Strom.
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I work for the American Gilby Association as a commercial
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Marketing director. I've served in that capacity for
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about 9 years. Right now it's Sabetha, Kansas.
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My wife and we raised our family here.
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My wife Carrie and I have 3 kids.
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We raised our kids here. They're all out of college and
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working different jobs at this point in their lives.
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And so that's where I'm from I guess and have worked for the
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Aga for about 9 years and I have had a great experience, you
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know, getting more about Gelvy cattle, their strengths and what
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they offer the beef industry and everything like that.
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Absolutely, and I'm so excited to talk with you today a little
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bit more about the Gelvy breed and what it offers to the beef
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industry and all of those things.
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Can you kind of give us a rundown on the Gelvy breed and
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where you really see the Gelvy breed and it's true impacts on
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the beef industry? As we look at it today, a lot of
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commercial cattlemen will look at buying a new bowl and they're
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going to go and they're going to buy a traditional Angus, which
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nothing wrong with that. But there are advantages to
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looking at some of these considered smaller breeds as
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well for what they offer the industry, whether it be in a
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commercial capacity, crossbreeding or whether you're
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running full bread stalkers or something like that as well.
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So can you kind of just give us the rundown on the breed and
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then where you really see it lying within the industry today?
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Sure. I think you mentioned
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crossbreeding in the commercial cattle industry and I think
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that's where Gelvey really fits very, very well.
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They bring a lot of different strengths and you know, when
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you're talking about an effective cross breeding
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program, some of the things you need to consider in order to
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take advantage of heterosis and hybrid vigor and those things
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you need to be thinking about breed complementarity.
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And Gilvey, as one of the continental breeds, offers a lot
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of pretty, especially to the British breeds, which are very
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prevalent. And I just want to back up just
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a little bit. LV Seaman was brought to United
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States in 1971. The American Gelvi Association
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was formed in 1971. You know, currently we've got
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probably 950 to 1000 members and we've got about 35,000 active
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cows in a herd book on herd assessment registrations.
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One of the things that Gelvi did that was unique in the late
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1990s was started a hybrid, a registered hybrid program that's
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called Balancer, that's a registered trademark name for
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Galvi influence cattle. They've got to be a minimum of
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25% Galvi up to 75% Galvi, with the offsetting percentage being
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either Angus or Red Angus. To meet the Balancer criteria.
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We calculate EP DS, we keep track of the pedigrees on those
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cattle. And you know, I think that's
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where we see a lot of breed complementary, the strengths of
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Gelvi along with the strengths of Angus, for instance, you
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know, and so those hybrid seed stock animals make crossbreeding
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easy in commercial situations. You can buy balance or bulls,
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you know, keep the replacement females and continue to buy
4:30
balancer bulls again. And I think that the maternal
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strengths of Gilvy are tremendous.
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Gilvy influenced females are rock stars out in the past year.
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The US Meat Animal Research Center out of Clay Center NE has
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some data that we recently been publishing that Gilvy influenced
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females wean calves that are 22.7 lbs heavier than any of the
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other continental or British breeds of females that are
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involved in the US Meat Animal Research Center.
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I think one of the really innovative things that Gilvy and
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Balancer breeders did was back in the 90s when they introduced
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balancers and Balancers is a registered trademark name for
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our hybrid registered seed stock.
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Balancer cattle need to be a minimum of 25% Gelvi up to 75%
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Gelvi with the offsetting percentage being either Red
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Angus or Black Angus. We do register some other
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composites and hybrids such as Southern Balancers and those
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cattle include some heat tolerant breeds, you know, for
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use in the South and the Southwest.
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But anyway, the Balancers are a tremendous example of reaping
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the benefits of heterosis and hybrid vigor and breed
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complementarity, which is so important when you're in cross
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breeding program. And so basically in those
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cattle, you know, you get the strengths and the advantages of
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the Galvi breed, the strengths and the advantages of Angus and
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Red Angus or the other breeds of cattle as well.
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So you know, that's been tremendous for our breed.
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It makes cross breeding easy for commercial cattlemen and I think
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there's a lot of benefits to that.
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Yeah, absolutely. Can you talk a little bit more
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about if you're having a conversation with a producer and
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they're thinking about introducing the Gelby breed to
6:12
their herd, what that conversation kind of looks like
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and really the advantages and like true benefits of that
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introduction look like for those producers out there?
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The Gelby females are just rock stars in the pasture.
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Gelby influence females have excellent fertility,
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productivity, longevity. They stay in the heard a long
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time, no starting with fertility.
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They breed up great. They rebreathe and they stay in
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the herd a long time. And they raise large calves.
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Some of the data out of the US Meat Animal Research Center at
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Clay Center NE shows that Gilvey influenced females weaned calves
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that are 22.7 lbs heavier weaning than any of the other
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Continental or British breeds of females.
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And in today's market, that's worth at least $100 per calf.
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And many times that doesn't even account for the increase and
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efficiency, you know, with crossbreeding, you get more
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pounds of caffeine per Cal exposed.
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I think Gilbey females are tremendous at that.
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And so, you know, it's part of the sustainability conversation
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and doing more, producing more with lower inputs and using
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less. And that's what these females
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do. And different environments,
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different situations across the country, they just continue to
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raise great calves year after year.
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And so it's great for the sustainability conversation.
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But the real sustainability or the real benefit, it's an
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economic benefit to producers. Yeah.
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Can you touch a little bit more on that, the economic benefit to
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producers and really what that looks like when you introduce a
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breed like Galvi and especially when we're comparing like
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whether someone's going to introduce a true Galvi or a
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Galvi balancer into their herd, The true benefit may be over
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other breeds as well in a traditional route there.
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Yeah. So I'm a huge proponent of
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crossbreeding. I think there's a lot of
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benefits. You know, one of the things that
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crossbreeding does is you see an improvement in the lowly
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heritable trades. So you know, fertility and
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health and things like that longevity stay ability, you
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know, those are some really critical pieces to a Cal calf
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operations, overall profitability.
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And so you know, I think if you're running you know what
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kind of a straight bred British bread type cow herd and you use
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Gilvy bulls on them, you know you will see an increase in
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weaning weights and from direct heterosis and things like that.
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But if you keep the females back, that's where you begin to
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see the benefits of the maternal heterosis, reduced input cost,
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greater productivity. And as I mentioned before you
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know we quantified that as over $100 per calf at weaning time in
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today's market. You know when you look at 550 LB
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steers, what they're averaging across United States right now,
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I think you're looking at least $100 ahead in this market of
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added profitability to a cow calf operation and lower
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expenses probably at the same time.
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Some EP DS that are really standing out to you right now as
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far as the gallery breed is concerned in comparison to other
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breeds. We've got a full suite of EP DS,
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you know, of course with cavities, birth weight, the
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growth trades, some maternal trades, you know, like milk
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obviously, of course, and things like that.
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We do have three new indexes that we rolled out within the
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last year that would be economic indexes as far as a maternally
9:36
focused index, a total profit index, which is basically a
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complete production cycle. That would be for producers, you
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know, who want to focus on a large number of trades, their
9:49
own replacement females and then the steer cabs and the Co heifer
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cabs are going to be fed out. You know, we're marketed in the
9:57
value based system at the end of their life.
10:00
We also have a terminal index which is called Peter profit
10:03
index. So and then several other things
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that are in development at this time.
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So pretty much a full suite of EP DS and there's a lot of data
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to sort, to sort through. You know, I do like the indexes
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because you're able to make progress in multiple trades at
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one time. So I think those are a huge
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benefit. Yeah, absolutely.
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As Galvez and balancers just continue to grow in popularity
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across the United States and become more widely adopted,
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especially in our commercial cattle operations, where do you
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see kind of the breed continuing to grow and develop and truly
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make strides within just the overall cattle industry?
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Well, as I've talked a little bit earlier, you know, I think
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the crossbred Galvian bouncer females make tremendous females.
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So, you know, they can contribute to a lot in different
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operations across various environments in all parts of the
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country. I've seen them excel, you know,
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from the Southeast and the Gulf Coast, you know, going to the
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Southwest in Arizona, you know, New York, the Pacific Northwest,
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wherever they might be. And then, you know, I think the
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other thing is, is in the feed lot, these crossbred cattle, the
11:09
hybrid cattle, you know, you've got a lot of performance in
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them. You get some feed efficiency.
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So, you know, lower cost of gains and dry matter intake and
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feed conversion is very desirable a lot of times in
11:21
these cattle. And you know, as our breeders
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just continue to focus on making improvements in many different
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areas, you know, as far as growth and overall carcass merit
11:33
and carcass quality and things like that, I think we have a lot
11:36
to offer there. One of the things that I think
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that we're going to see in the next few years is, you know,
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we're obviously going to have a continued focus on meat quality,
11:46
on end product quality because the consumers want to buy high
11:49
quality beef. But I also think that in the
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beef industry that we're going to see increased selection
11:55
pressure and probably, probably more value paid for red meat
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yield. And that is one of the things
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that the Gelvy cattle do very, very well.
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You know, if they they'll bring some muscle and some pounds and
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in the end you're going to have increased red meat yield with a
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little bit less outside fat, little less internal fat.
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You know, another thing I think that we do really well is Gelvi
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cattle were originally raised at altitude in Germany.
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And so from some of the Pap testing data that I've seen and
12:28
everything like that, Gelvi's have good hearts.
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And so you know what the with good strong hearts, probably a
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little bit less internal fat when we're feeding cattle to
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really, really heavy weights and things like that, which I don't
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think it's going to change. I think we're going to continue
12:43
to feed harvest cattle to heavyweights.
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You know, we don't see much of death loss late in the feeding
12:50
period in Gilbey Cross Cat. And so, you know, there's just a
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lot of things like that that I think are combining the
12:59
strengths of Gelvia influenced cattle along with the benefits
13:02
of heterosis and hybrid vigor, increased efficiencies and
13:05
things like that. Yeah.
13:07
And I mean, we look at our mountain States and our people
13:09
that are in high altitudes. I mean, heart disease issues are
13:13
a really vital thing up there. And it's a really big concern,
13:17
especially when you're getting bulls from the like the plains
13:21
or something like that and you're taking them up to these
13:23
high altitudes. I know a lot of people that have
13:25
had continuous issues with them getting up there and starting to
13:28
get put to work up in the mountains and it just doesn't
13:31
work out because they just don't have the hearts for it and the
13:35
altitude is just a really big issue.
13:37
So I think that's another standout factor as well.
13:40
When you look at it just in the long term success of like where
13:44
these cattle and these bowls really fit across the United
13:46
States. I think the flexibility is
13:48
really awesome that they can go all the way from like being out
13:51
in Florida and succeeding there in those hot climates, but then
13:54
also being up in the mountains and succeeding there, especially
13:57
when it comes to heart conditions and having some
14:00
strength that they can provide to different herds there.
14:02
Definitely. Absolutely, absolutely.
14:04
So when we're looking at just like the Gelvy breed as a whole
14:09
and then balancers and people really starting to implement
14:12
these different genetics into their commercial herds.
14:15
What are you kind of like guiding people towards on making
14:19
the decision between a Gelvy or a balancer or if they're going
14:23
to introduce some bulls to their herd or if they're going to
14:25
introduce maybe they're going to go buy some females or things
14:27
like that? Like, how are you kind of
14:29
walking these producers through making those decisions for their
14:33
operations and their operational success?
14:35
Well, you know, it really depends a lot on what their
14:38
goals are, what they want to accomplish, the direction they
14:41
want to go. You know, one thing is we have a
14:44
lot of diversity in our registered cattle population.
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You know, Galvez were originally red.
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Today, you know, we're probably 60%, maybe 65% black.
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A lot of our cattle are homozygous black, a lot of them
14:58
are homozygous pulled. So, you know, too many
15:01
producers, you know, homozygous black and homozygous pulled
15:05
might be important for some of the people that want to raise
15:08
red cattle, you know, because that's their preference or
15:10
because of environmental concerns in the South.
15:13
You know, when the heat and whatever, you know, they
15:16
probably still want to be homozygous pulled in today's
15:20
market and environment and everything.
15:22
But you know, some of them are going to want to be maternally
15:25
focused. Some of them want to be a little
15:27
bit more toward the growth and performance end of it.
15:31
You know, because I see different producers, you know, I
15:34
think a lot of them want to capitalize on the strength, the
15:37
maternal strength of the Gilby breed and they want to keep the
15:41
replacement females. But I also, you know, visit a
15:44
couple guys yesterday in Nebraska and they're using Gilby
15:47
more as a terminal cross, you know, have a cross bred cow,
15:51
maybe a black white face cow. They're putting balancer bulls
15:54
on those females and then selling the project and they're
15:57
all going through the feed lot. So you know, if your end goal is
16:01
to harvest all of the cattle, you know, then you need the high
16:05
growth, high carcass merit type cattle and then go that
16:08
direction. So I think it really depends on
16:10
what the producers goal is, but we've got a lot of different
16:14
options and can provide them with what they're looking for.
16:17
And personally, you know, if somebody's using Gilly for the
16:20
first time, I think Gillby's a great way to go if you want to
16:23
keep the replacement females. Like I've been saying, I'm a big
16:25
proponent across so then personally I'd probably go back
16:28
with a bouncer bowl on those crossbred females.
16:31
Interesting. And I like how it is well
16:34
diversified across different areas of you just kind of stated
16:37
that, hey, we've got the maternal side, but then we've
16:40
also got the terminal side. And we're seeing advantages to
16:42
both depending on producers goals because I think that we
16:45
have a wide variety especially here in the plains of producers
16:49
doing both of those different things.
16:50
So it's important to see that and especially the maternal
16:53
side, you made a really good point there bringing in some
16:55
maternal aspects sticks to some breeds that I mean, we have some
16:59
really awesome Angus Mamas on our place and they, they just,
17:02
they do their job and they're awesome.
17:03
But then there's also those situations where you need to
17:06
breed a little bit of that back into a breed.
17:09
And so being able to provide that with a cross bred situation
17:13
of hey, we're everyone's winning in this situation type of.
17:17
Thing yeah, that's a brings to mind a few things I want to
17:20
point out about Gailey females. You know, we talked about the
17:23
productivity and and weaning more pounds of calf, but Gelby
17:28
females are also very moderate mature size.
17:31
You know, once again, data from the Meat Animal Research Center
17:34
shows that the Gelby females have the most moderate mature
17:37
size of the major beef breeds. And so, you know, you've got
17:41
decreased size, you've got increased productivity.
17:45
These females have great temperament, very docile, good
17:48
dispositions. That's one of the things I hear
17:51
a lot of compliments about when I'm out in the country.
17:53
And then, you know, good utters, good feet, things like that.
17:57
So they're easy cows to be around.
18:00
They're easy cows to handle. A lot of people talk about how
18:03
easy they are to handle. And I mean, that makes a really
18:05
big difference. And when you're going and
18:08
processing these cows, like especially in the market, like
18:10
we've got today, they start raising their head up at me and
18:14
I look at that trailer and I'm like, Yep, I think you're
18:16
getting a ride to the to the sail barn this next week because
18:20
I don't feel like dealing with you anymore, right?
18:22
I think we've all kind of been in that boat when, when you can
18:25
get what you can get right now for cold cows or just cows in
18:27
general. Like they got a little to to
18:29
them. They're they're getting on the
18:31
bus and they're going to town. That's true.
18:34
It's a great time to do a little house cleaning and you know,
18:37
with the price of coal bulls and everything like that, it's a
18:40
great time to take the old bulls to town, upgrade your genetics
18:44
and get some new bull power and new bulls in the bull battery.
18:48
Absolutely. So you guys are still a growing
18:51
and developing breed. Galvey's are getting more
18:53
popular right now within just the cattle industry in general,
18:57
especially on the balancer side. But as you guys continue to grow
19:01
and continue to just bring more widespread adoption of the
19:05
balancer breed, of the Galvey breed in general to the United
19:09
States cattle herd, what are you really?
19:11
What point do you really want to drive home with listeners today?
19:15
This is what Galvis are here for.
19:16
We've talked about maternal capabilities, we've talked about
19:19
them in the feed lot. But what are things that you
19:20
just, you really want producers today that are listening to this
19:23
to remember about the Galvi breed?
19:25
So, well, I think if you haven't tried using Galvier Balance or
19:29
cattle, I just want to encourage you to give them a try.
19:33
Consider it and you know, work with a breeder in your area.
19:37
One thing I think that's really important is to, you know,
19:40
sometimes we go too far away to buy seed stock and maybe they're
19:44
not raised in the environment we're running cows in.
19:46
So, you know, if nothing else, find a Galvian balancer breeder
19:49
that's kind of in your geographic area running cattle
19:52
in the same condition, same climate, environment, everything
19:55
like that. And give them a try.
19:58
And, you know, I think you'll be happy with what you find.
20:01
You know, there's a lot of. Other things going on in Aga, in
20:05
the Gilvy world, we've got a tremendous and growing junior
20:10
association. The American Gilvy Junior
20:12
Association is thriving. So it's a great opportunity for
20:15
kids to be involved, you know, a youth development, leadership
20:19
development, things like that. And we've got to be nurturing
20:22
and growing and cultivating our young people, right, if we want
20:25
them to come back to this business.
20:28
And so the AGJA, but we'll have the junior classic in Lincoln,
20:32
NE be I think June 21st to June 26th and it is themed the good
20:38
life. So, you know, that's something
20:40
that's pretty exciting and more people can get involved to do
20:44
it. Absolutely.
20:44
Well, Tom, this has been just such a great talk today.
20:47
My family also, we've had quite a bit of experience with the
20:51
Galvey breed and I have so many friends that raise Galvey's or
20:55
balancers and just the success that they've seen is really
20:58
great. So I really enjoyed today's
20:59
conversation with you. And my the family also raises
21:02
another small breed of cattle as well.
21:04
And so it's just really great to be able to talk to someone and
21:06
say like, hey, this is this is what this breed has to offer.
21:09
This is what you can see. And as a person who is
21:12
interviewing you, really being able to sit back and be like,
21:15
no, I know what he's saying is the truth and that I have seen
21:18
it in practice. And these Galvez and these
21:21
balancers are really showing up to play.
21:22
And a lot of these producers are doing really great things within
21:26
the industry. So I'm excited to see this breed
21:28
continue to grow and what it has to offer to the industry.
21:31
Is there anything else that you would like to leave with our
21:32
audience members today before we wrap it up?
21:34
A couple of the programs we offer for commercial cattle
21:36
producers include Feeder Finder, which is a free e-mail service
21:40
that we use to advertise cattle whenever, wherever they're
21:43
selling them. So they've got cattle going to a
21:45
sale barn or they've got them consigned to a video auction,
21:49
they can go to our website, they can submit information about the
21:52
cattle and then we'll send out an E blast as free advertisement
21:57
whenever and wherever those cattle are selling.
21:59
And then the other thing that we have is source and age
22:02
verification with a program called Balancer Edge.
22:04
We partnered with IMI Global on that a few years ago.
22:07
So if producers are interested in value added programs,
22:11
Balancer Edge would definitely be something to look into.
22:14
You know you've got the base source and age verification and
22:17
then if you want to do NHTC cattle, non hormone treated
22:21
cattle or verified free of antibiotics and hormones, the
22:25
verified naturals, you can do those programs as well.
22:28
So those are a couple things we do to try to support our
22:31
commercial producers when they're selling the LVM balancer
22:34
influence feeder gap. Well, one thing I want to say is
22:37
thank you very much for having me on here and I've appreciated
22:40
and enjoyed the opportunity to visit with you Lauren.
22:42
So we look forward to continuing to advertise with Cattle USA.
22:47
Awesome. Thank you so much, Tom, to all
22:49
of you audience members out there.
22:50
If you are interested in anything Tom and I talked about
22:53
today, make sure you check out the show notes down below.
22:55
I'm going to have some links to the Galvi Association, some
22:57
different research things that are going on so you can get in
23:01
the know on what is happening on the Galvi breed and the
23:05
balancers as well. Thank you so much for listening
23:07
to another episode of the Cattle USA Daily Podcast.
23:10
We will see you all next time.