With U.S. cow herd size at a 75-year low and with no reprieve in sight, it’s never been more important to protect your cattle and operation. Farmers and ranchers should consider how to protect their animals and operation before it is too late. Here are a few of the topics shared at Cattlemen’s College during the National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) CattleCon 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The weight of progress
One thing is for sure: Larger carcasses have been, and still are, economically rewarded, yet they bring real biological, logistical and market challenges the industry can’t ignore, said Warren Rusche, South Dakota State University, during a Cattlemen’s College presentation titled “The weight of progress: Are bigger cattle better for the beef industry?”
Using USDA data going back to the early 1960s, Rusche highlighted the upward trend in carcass weight.
“Up until today, we have been on a steady, relentless increase in carcass size, to the tune of about 4-and-a-half to 5 pounds per year on average over an extended period of time,” Rusche said.
This long-run increase held through multiple cattle cycles, commodity price swings and broader economic shocks. Meanwhile, discounts for light carcasses are becoming more severe, while heavyweight discounts have generally softened over time.
“From a packer standpoint, we have a greater tolerance for heavy carcasses and less willingness to bring in lighter weight carcasses,” Rusche said.
Despite the profit signal, there is growing concerns about plant capacity, retail cut size and animal health. Plants and coolers were largely designed for 850-900 pound carcasses, not 1,100 pounds and beyond.
“We have to get those cooled down efficiently, and that creates some engineering challenges,” Rusche said. “Those are real.”
On the retail side, oversized ribeyes and strip loins risk consumer pushback on price and eating experience. Some retailers respond by cutting thinner steaks. Others use creative merchandising, like rib-eye cap steaks and Manhattan cuts, as one way to manage big muscles and preserve value.
However, health and welfare may be the ultimate constraint.
“As we’ve made cattle larger and heavier, we haven’t necessarily changed the heart-lung capacity at all,” Rusche said. “Those are some challenges we have to deal with.”
Late-term death loss on $4,000‑plus animals makes even a 1% increase in mortality economically painful.
Rusche added for cow-calf producers to not chase larger cow size. “Cows need to match their environment. If we try to make cattle bigger without some kind of plan, we’re on the road to a train wreck.”
Instead, Rusche argued that part of the added carcass weight can and should come from feedlot management, nutrition and technology, not solely from bigger-framed genetics.
“We cannot go backward on product quality,” Rusche said. “One of those industries [pork, poultry or beef] has to sell their product cheap in order to move it, and ours doesn’t.”
He added, “Any system that can produce more pounds of high‑quality beef efficiently will be rewarded.”
But the industry must solve the accompanying health, handling and marketing issues to sustain that strategy long term.
The cow comes first
At the “The cow comes first” session at Cattlemen’s College, experts George Perry, Texas A&M University, and Ron Scott, Purina, shared how reproductive physiology, nutrition and management intersect to build a more profitable and sustainable cow herd, starting long before a heifer is even born.
“The beef industry provides about 20 percent of the meat worldwide,” Perry said.
Yet each sector – cow-calf, stockers and packers – has different profit drivers.
“My main focus is on the reproduction side,” Perry said. “How do we get a better calf every year?”
Traditional genetics alone cannot account for differences in productivity. Even clones with “the exact same genetics” may not perform the same.
The answer lies in epigenetics, Perry said. Mechanisms such as DNA methylation and histone modification change how the body can utilize the genetic code that's there and change how that animal is going to perform for its life.
Nutrition during gestation emerged as a critical driver of reproductive capacity in daughters. Perry described studies where short-term nutritional restriction around breeding sharply reduced embryo survival. In one trial, dropping cows from “adequate” to “low” nutrition right after breeding resulted in 38% embryo survival. Even when embryos survived, they were altered.
“If we dropped nutritional supply at A.I. for as short as six days, we impacted the stage of embryo development, we’ve impacted embryo quality,” Perry said.
These impacts extend into the ovaries of future replacement heifers.
“The ovarian reserve that follow the ovary for your future replacement heifer is really impacted while that calf is in utero,” Perry said.
Yet producers are not helpless.
“Can we change what's been done?” Perry asked. “Yes, we just need to understand the mechanisms.”
Scott carried the discussion from physiology to practical management and economics. He argued that to capture the benefits of fetal programming, producers must provide “consistent nutrition” and think of cows more like pregnant women receiving prenatal care.
“What's the first thing everyone does when your cows get pregnant?” Scott asked. “You go out and do nothing, right? You did the same thing you did the day before.”
He added, “Body condition is the barometer and must be monitored regularly and written down because if you see your cows every day, you can't see them lose weight. Slow weight losses are invisible to the daily eye.”
Don’t let your cows get thin. It will stunt the calf’s growth and put a ceiling on your next generation.
Vitamin and mineral programs are also nonnegotiable.
“We need vitamin mineral supplementation for the cows every day,” Scott said. “It affects everything.”
First-service conception and early calving drive both longevity and pounds weaned.
“I want every cow to get bred on first service,” Scott said. “That's where you make your money. Economically, each missed heat is costly.”
He also challenged producers to rethink heifer selection. “I don't want to keep a replacement heifer that was born late,” Scott said. “Heifers born and bred early tend to stay in the herd longer and wean more total pounds of calf over their lifetime.”
Scott ended with a final fetal programming message. “Compensation carries price, and the consequences cannot be reversed. Any day a pregnant cow is compensating for stress or poor nutrition, something happens for the developing fetus that is negative, and you don't get it back.”
Prioritize managing for longevity. Rethink your heifer selection and management. Focus on the first-service conception. Also, optimize fetal programing. Provide consistent nutrients for consistent body condition of your herd.
