About Green Springs Bull Test

Agricultural Service, Green Springs Bull Test is privately owned test facility established in 1999. Located East of Nevada, MO and south of Kansas City.  Owner/Manager Kent Abele says "The bull test is especially intended to benefit breeders who desire to improve their genetics and to offer bulls for sale in March and November of each year the purebred bulls that pass the test.   "Only the best pass the test"  417.448.7416   Celebrating over 20 Years at GSBT 

Individual Feed Efficiency Monitored using GrowSafe Technology at the bunk. 

Why is it that as an industry, agriculture seems to only measure success by the amounts we produce?
Why is it always important to raise the most bushels per acre, the most horsepower, the longest stock trailer, the largest weaning weights, or the heaviest calves at market time?
An old cattle trader from years past once said that the most profit you can make on a set of calves is made the day you buy them. What he meant was that if you didn't buy them right, no matter what you did after that, they would not make money. He increased profits by controlling inputs.
That is what we as cattle producers need to concentrate on as we move forward in the beef business. We can continue to push production numbers to a certain degree over time, but the real money is going to be made by controlling inputs. We need to produce more with less. We need to improve efficiencies.
Approximately 65% of the variable costs in our business is feed cost. Whether it is grass, hay, or grain, the price of it has gone out the roof over the last few years. If we as producers hope to survive this onslaught, we must develop and raise cattle that produce more on less.
That is what the measurement of residual feed intake has to offer the industry. With heritability of the trait at 40%, it is conceivable that we can improve feed efficiency by twelve to fifteen percent over three or four generations. that means that instead of spending $500 in grass and feed to raise a calf, you can do it for $425. On 100 head of calves that's $7500. That is money saved in the operation that drops straight to the bottom line. You don't have to get a buyer to pay you for it. It's not dependent on a premium or the markets. If you buy and use bulls with a negative RFI it's yours to keep no matter what.
The catch is, that just because a seed stock producer says they have efficient cattle does not necessarily make it so. The only way to measure feed efficiency accurately is through the use of technology such as the Growsafe System. DNA tests do not accurately predict efficiency. The size of cattle does not accurately predict efficiency. The EPD's that are available to date by breed associations do not accurately predict efficiency. Anyone that tries to tell you differently is misleading you. Look for accurate, proven, predictable data and use it to move your program forward into a more profitable era.

Comments from Kent Abele: 

I often wonder what the future holds for the next generation or two that has the courage to try to make a living in this business. Most of this country’s population has become so far removed from their agricultural roots that they no longer understand the importance, or the function of the most important industry in the world. We have quite literally fostered a generation made up largely of people that spend most of their time complaining with their mouths full. From the introduction of technology that allows us to create “fake meat” to the introduction of the Green New Deal by a growing group of disconnected young people, we are in the midst of a tumultuous time, when people with limited knowledge and absolutely no experience, think they know more about our business and how to run it, than we do. There is no doubt that climate change is real, it always has been, hell it changed here three times last week. There is also no doubt we should do all that we logically can to avert it However it has been proven that livestock contribute very little to the problem, and there is no doubt that livestock, and more specifically cattle and other ruminants do more to use resources that are otherwise wasted than all the socialist bartenders in New York put together. Surely at some point these people will realize that they will starve to death a long time before non organic food, GMOs, or climate change kills them. Choose your battles with an eye on the consequences and be careful what you wish for. If you choose to eat fake meat, so be it. If you prefer to be a vegan or vegetarian, go for it, after all it’s your health you are wrecking and it’s your choice. We have not nor do we have any intention of trying to pass laws to force you to eat meat. Please don’t try to force the rest of us not to. I read a study the other day. It calculated that if we taxed every wage earner in the United States 100% on everything they earned over $30,000 per year, we would still fall short of funding the Green New Deal. How do you think that’s going to work out?