January 1967 marked an important beginning for the beef industry. Cattle producers and researchers gathered in Denver for a meeting during the National Western Stock Show to take a step toward the future — a step toward beef improvement. Those who came together began to discuss transformation of cattle selection from its historical focus on visual appraisal to a unified system of performance testing.

From that discussion came what many count as a “revolutionary performance movement” for the beef industry. The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) was formed, and in the four decades since, has made great strides in creating awareness, acceptance and usage of beef cattle performance concepts.

“Forty years ago, a group of visionary cattle producers and scientists changed the industry by formalizing a plan to bring objective measurement to the selection of cattle,” says Tom Field, a Colorado State University animal sciences professor.

Of these early efforts, Willie Altenburg, associate vice president of beef marketing for Genex Cooperative and a current BIF board member, adds, “This group, still in its infancy, enabled producers to practically apply scientific efforts as a way of improving beef cattle globally, creating a more profitable product.”

Altenburg and Field are among the organizers of the 2007 BIF annual meeting and research symposium set for June 6-9 in Fort Collins, CO. The event will mark BIF's 40th anniversary.

The early years

At the time BIF was being formed in the late 1960s, the beef industry was experiencing a flush of new technology. In BIF historical documents, Frank Baker, one of the organization's forefathers, described the time in these terms: “Some features of the ferment [in the industry] were the new association of breeders of newly imported breeds of cattle, new research on germplasm evaluation in the new Meat Animal Research Center, new commercial production concepts based on crossbreeding, artificial insemination as a tool in purebred and commercial herds, relocation of the cattle-feeding and meatpacking facilities from the Midwest to the Southwest and challenges to the usefulness of the showing in cattle improvement.”

Baker added, “Traditionalists tried to stay in the middle of the road until probable outcomes became more clear, but innovators were saying, ‘Get the hell out of the middle of the road — you're blocking progress.’”

To that, Dave Nichols, an Iowa seedstock breeder and feeder, says, “This was an exciting time to be in the cattle business.” Nichols attended the first organizational meeting in 1967 and says, “One thing that came out of that first meeting was the need for a federation of organizations that would standardize the inputs we had in the commercial industry.”

Many milestones

Over the four decades since BIF began, the beef industry has seen monumental change in the evolution of cattle-performance testing and evaluation. In the beginning, great variation existed in the methods and procedures used to collect data for early, state-run beef improvement programs. The genetic progress BIF has helped implement since that time has included:

• Standardized performance testing

  This was among the first milestones achieved by BIF. By developing uniformity in the terminology and methodology of performance measurements, data collected could be universally applicable. Early on, this process included development of 205-day weaning weights and ratios. Later, it grew to include additional growth and maternal traits.

  Of this process, Field says, “Standardization of performance testing was critical to assuring that the industry offered user-friendly tools to commercial producers.”

• Development of EPDs

  The next step for the industry was the transition from within-herd ratios to Expected Progeny Difference (EPD) for several traits. This ultimately led to the development of national sire summaries for each breed.

  Ike Eller of Virginia served as BIF's executive director from 1983 to 1985. He recalls, “Sire summaries helped the industry go from records that could only be used in one herd to information that could be used in herds across the country as a selection tool.”

Over time, EPDs have evolved to include evaluation of more than just growth and maternal traits. EPDs for carcass traits, reproduction and stayability now exist. Across-breed EPD values also have been created.

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