Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Items of Business

1. CSREES National Program Leader Report - Henry Tyrrell
* IFAFS funds likely to move to Integrated Programs
* Appropriation Bill not passed
* Appropriation may be carried forward to 2003

2. Technical Reports
All participating scientists presented technical reports 15-30 min plus 20 - 30 min discussion each report. Achievements provided in attached summary.

3. Next meeting - November 10 & 11, 2003 at MARC, contingent upon set up of Individual Feed Intake apparatus at MARC - otherwise - meet in Reno, Nevada.

4. Incoming Secretary for 2003 - C Ferrell

5. Review / Planning Collaborative Research

Meeting participants agreed to develop an additional objective for future focus - Action Plan for Collaborative Research.

7 Identify a specific descriptor of efficient performance - Initially Residual Feed Intake (subject to review)

7 Develop an outline describing objectives - iterative revision of preliminary objectives by January 1, 2003 - Primary responsibility - Hill, Sainz, D Johnson, Carstens, Nielsen.

Summary of meeting achievements

Contribution to Project Objective 1 - The forum provided active discussion of a range of issues following presentations of recent data and ideas:
* Residual Feed Intake (RFI)
* Is this the best measure of feed efficiency?
* Should additional parameters be included? Although RFI is theoretically independent of mature size and growth rate - are there any long-term disadvantages to RFI as a target trait?
* Ruminant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions
* Improved feed efficiency will decrease contribution of ruminants to greenhouse gasses

Contribution to Project Objective 2. - The group resolved to develop a collaborative research program:

* The group will target CSREES "Integrated Programs" in developing a research program.
* RFI will be the focus trait of the program.
* Units will contribute sub-projects under a common umbrella.
* Themes within the program to be investigated will include - underlying biology, mechanisms, predictor traits of RFI including
* Metabolites
* Hormone profiles
* Specific challenge eg response to glucose clamp
* Technologies to be utilized
* Proteomics
* Genomics
* Microarray
* Biochemistry
* Hormone / metabolite assay
* Selection
* Cattle resource - MARC herd - assessed for RFI
* Preliminary Program Outline and Objectives to be documented by January 1, 2003

Contribution to Project Objective 3 - This meeting has built upon the symposium held during the ASAS Western Section meeting:
* WCC-92 was the impetus and shared in the development of the symposium
* Ideas / hypothesis development
* Consolidation of collaborative arrangements

A major accomplishment of the Committee in 2002 was the presentation of a symposium associated with the 74th Annual Meeting of the Western Section of the American Society of Animal Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. The symposium entitled Efficiency of Beef Production on Western Pastures and Rangelands, included the following presentations:

Rangeland Overview: Challenges to Forage-Based Beef Production Systems in the West, by Dr Tim DelCurto, Oregon State University.

Technology to Complement Forage-Based Beef Production Systems in the West, by Dr Jan Bowman, Montana State University.

History of Energetic Efficiency Research: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? By Dr Don Johnson, Colorado State University.

Genetic Variation in Energy Efficiency: Limits and Opportunities, by Dr Merlyn Nielsen, University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Residual Feed Intake: Predictive Value and Application Challenges, by Dr Robert Herd, New South Wales Agriculture Beef Center, Australia.

Behavioral Adaptations by Grazing Cattle to Enhance Energetic Efficiency, by Dr Ed Fredrickson, USDA Jomanda Experimental Range, NM.

Cattle Finishing Programs on Grassland: Costs Benefits, Efficiency and Final Product Acceptability, by Dr Randy Wedmeier, Utah State University.

Opportunities for Production of Natural or Organic Beef, by Dr John Scanga, Colorado State University.

These presentations were followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Keith Belk, Robbie Baird LaValley, and CJ Mucklow, Colorado State University and included all of the symposium speakers.

The symposium stimulated considerable debate and discussion.

Carstens GE, Theis CM, White MB, Welsh TH, Jr., Warrington BG, Randel RD, Forbes TDA, Lippke H, Greene LW, Lunt DK. Residual feed intake in beef steers: I. Correlations with performance traits and ultrasound measures of body composition. Proceedings of the Western Section Meeting, American Society of Animal Science 2002; 53: 552-555.

Herd RM, Archer JA, Arthur PF. Reducing the cost of beef production through genetic improvement in residual feed intake: Opportunity and challenges to application. J Anim Sci 2003; 81(E Suppl. 1): E9-E17.

Hill RA, Herd RM in: Feed Efficiency in Beef Cattle (Proceedings of the Feed Efficiency Workshop) pp 46-50 (Archer JA, Herd RM, Arthur PF, Eds.) 2001 Cooperative Research Centre for Cattle and Beef Quality., Armidale.

Johnson, D.E., C.L. Ferrell, and T.G. Jenkins. 2003. History of
energetic efficiency research: Where have we been and where are we
going?. J Anim Sci 2003; 81(E Suppl. 1, in press). 43 pp.

Julien DJ, Tess MW. Effects of breeding date, weaning date, and grazing season length on profitability of cow-calf production systems in southeastern Montana. J Anim Sci 2002; 80: 1462-1469.

Tess MW. Using genetic tools to meet market targets without sacrificing maternal performance. J Anim Sci 2002; 80(E. Suppl. 1): E94-E103.

Tomsen, U.J., D.K. Darnell and M.K. Nielsen. 2002. A comparison of beef
cattle crossbreeding systems assuming value-based marketing. Proceedings of
the 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. CD-ROM
communication no. 23-22.