What does body condition in cattle have to do with anything? Everything! Just ask Johann Zietsman.

Renowned cattleman Johann Zietsman

Johann Zietsman grew up in Zimbabwe where he had the highest average price per sold bull in the country for 16 consecutive years, but due to the Robert Mugabe land reforms which consisted of the compulsory acquisition of farmland without compensation, Johann and his family lost their land and cattle. Johann now lives in Zambia. While grazing cattle in central Africa he realized early on that he needed to change the genotype of his cattle because for the last 40 years cattle were not being bred for grass conversion efficiency.

...body condition is the A to Z of cattle breeding

​As Johann Zietsman explains in his lectures and in his book Man, Cattle and Velt, body condition is the "A to Z" of cattle breeding.  He also expresses that the biggest paradigm shift required by cattleman today is that we have to change our objective from “production per animal” to ecologically and economically sustainable profit per acre, and that “profit per animal” is negatively correlated to “profit per acre”. He goes on to say that inherent body condition is the genetic foundation for economic and ecological sustainability.

According to Johann everything in cattle breeding and management revolves around body condition, because if you don't have inherent body condition, you'll have to provide feed in order to achieve the required body condition. But we do have a choice. We can breed and manage our grazing for good inherent body condition or we can feed for body condition. If our goal is to maximize ecologically and economically sustainable profit per acre then obviously good inherent body condition is something we need.

“The problem that we have today is that we're trying to change an efficient ruminant into an inefficient hog.”

​The majority of cattle on our ranches today are not suited for grass conversion efficiency. “The problem that we have today is that we're trying to change an efficient ruminant into an inefficient hog.” We must breed cattle that are efficient grass converters which is reflected in high inherent body condition. We've gotten into the mess we're in by inadvertently selecting for inefficient cattle because most selection criteria is based on absolute values like daily gain, weaning weights, yearling weights, residual feed intake, net feed efficiency, and feed conversion efficiency. These are negatively correlated to body condition. The conventional cattle industry is accurately measuring inappropriate selection criteria to the detriment of cattle herd. Fat weighs less but contains more energy than lean meat.

When Johann visited our ranch in the fall of 2013 he commented on the great potential in this area of Southern Missouri for growing grass. He was also very impressed with a South Poll bull of ours #341 that we had purchased from Ralph Voss of Voss Land and Cattle the previous year. We have several of this bull's sons that we're now using in our herd. We're continuing to adopt Johann's methods for selection and breeding for high inherent body condition cattle.  Inquire in  the comments section how we are implementing Johann's ideas. 

I believe the impact that Johann Zietsman has had, and continues to have, will forever change regenerative grazing and cattle breeding to the benefit of humans, cattle, and the planet.