Category: Livestock Management

R&R MachinE Works: Revolutionizing Feeding and INdustrial Manufacturing Since 1976

Posted on by Twin Rivers Media

For nearly five decades, R&R Machine Works has stood as a trusted leader in the agriculture and feeding industries. Renowned for its innovative approach, exceptional quality, and unmatched customer service, R&R has carved a reputation as the go-to partner for feedlot owners, managers, and beef and cattle producers. 

With its commitment to both tradition and technological advancement, R&R Machine Works continues to meet and exceed the evolving demands of the modern agriculture industry. Here’s how this trailblazer is shaping the future of feeding and industrial manufacturing. 

Why R&R Machine Works  Stands Out 

A Legacy of Excellence: 

Since 1976, R&R Machine Works has been a household name in the agriculture industry, delivering top-tier manufacturing solutions that consistently perform under the toughest conditions. Producers around the globe trust R&R for their roll servicing, feed mill manufacturing, automation services and equipment needs. 

Advanced Automation & Solutions: 

R&R is a leader in automation technology, delivering innovative solutions that redefine efficiency. Their state-of-the-art systems, such as the RR 2000 automation system and the R&R Analyzer, are designed with precision to streamline processes, enhance consistency, and boost productivity. By minimizing maintenance needs and improving nutritional efficiency, R&R’s technology provides measurable benefits for producers. 

With the expansion of their Industrial Services division, R&R has elevated automation to new heights, offering near “lights-out” operations with advanced remote monitoring and rapid responsiveness. These advancements significantly enhance profitability, making R&R a trusted partner in driving success for its clients.

Comprehensive Services: 

R&R goes beyond providing machinery, delivering comprehensive millwright services, industrial solutions, automation systems, roll servicing, and a wide inventory for leading brands. With 24/7 U.S.-based support and an extensive international distribution network, R&R ensures you always have access to the expertise you need. The recent acquisition of Farmac Industries further strengthens R&R’s capabilities, expanding its offerings and expertise. The launch of R&R Industrial has elevated the company’s ability to provide responsive site design, construction, and full-service solutions. Combining advanced automation, millwright services, and electrical contracting with R&R Machine Works’ global reputation for quality, R&R continues to set the standard for industrial excellence.

Consistent Quality and Reliability: 

The company’s motto, “Built to work, not work on,” reflects a deep commitment to creating reliable, durable machinery. Producers across the U.S., South America, Australia, and Europe trust R&R for its consistent performance, impressive customer loyalty, and ability to adapt for years of productive use. 

At R&R Machine Works, innovation drives everything we do. We continuously analyze industry trends and customer needs to better serve the feed industry, a commitment that fuels our advancements. Over the past year, we launched groundbreaking equipment, including the R&R Hydro—a revolutionary Hydro Infusion System. Unlike traditional methods that depend on soil and weather conditions, this cutting-edge technology ensures a consistent supply of premium-quality livestock feed, regardless of external factors.

The R&R Hydro System offers precise moisture measurement within the grain, not just on its surface. It systematically applies water or surfactant with accuracy, eliminating reliance on outdated or imprecise methods. This process ensures grains achieve the optimal moisture level before the gelatinization stage, unlocking the fullest nutritional potential of the flake.

Hydroponic fodder processed through this system is packed with essential nutrients vital for livestock health and productivity. By creating a controlled environment that enhances nutrient absorption, this highly digestible feed supports better overall livestock health, boosts reproduction rates, and improves the quality of meat and milk. As more farmers recognize the critical link between superior nutrition and improved outcomes, hydroponic fodder is quickly becoming an indispensable solution for healthier, more productive herds.

Real-World Success Stories 

Unmatched Operational Efficiency: 

An R&R customer managing 45,000 cattle achieved remarkable ROI within just 60 days of implementing the RR 2000 Automation System. By incorporating R&R’s Flakers, Steam Chests, and Analyzers, the operation enhanced feed quality, minimized maintenance costs, and significantly improved livestock health—all while expanding their capacity to 65,000 head. 

Proven Performance in Tough Conditions: 

From rural Mexico to Australia, farmers trust R&R Grain Cleaners to tackle even the toughest challenges, such as processing exceptionally dirty grains. Many clients who switched from competing brands praise R&R equipment for its consistent reliability and superior performance, even in the harshest environments. 

Enduring Partnerships, Built on Excellence: 

For decades, countless producers have remained loyal to R&R, citing benefits like increased efficiency, cost savings, durable machinery, and exceptional customer service. One long-term customer transformed their feeding operation from basic dry cracking to achieving up to 95% nutritional value, thanks to the continuous innovation of R&R’s equipment, services and team.

The Benefits for Feedlot Owners  & Producers 

R&R Machine Works empowers feedlot professionals in ways no one else can. Here’s what you can expect when you work with R&R Machine Works: 

• Improved Product Quality: Precision-engineered machinery ensures optimal nutritional value, boosting productivity. 

• Cost Savings: From better energy efficiency to reduced waste, R&R-designed systems will save you time and money over the long run. 

• Tailored Solutions: Whether you’re managing a small feedlot or overseeing hundreds of thousands of cattle, R&R delivers tailored solutions designed to meet the unique needs of your operation.

• Expert Service at Your Fingertips: Round-the-clock support ensures peace of mind and maximum uptime. 

• Future-Proofed Operations: Automation and innovation ensure that your business remains ahead of the competition. 

What’s Next for R&R Machine Works? 

R&R’s future is bright. The launch of their new 2025 production facility in Amarillo, Texas, is set to redefine lead times while boosting service quality for clients. With expanded capabilities from R&R Industrial and initiatives for sustainable innovation, R&R is well-positioned to support agricultural leaders worldwide. 

Take the First Step Towards Transforming Your Operation 

R&R Machine Works has the tools, expertise, team and dedication to help you achieve new levels of success. Join thousands of satisfied producers and discover what sets R&R apart. 

Don’t just imagine the possibilities—make them a reality. Explore R&R’s innovative solutions now. www.randrmachineworks.com

Gain a new view of your pastures’ forage potential

Posted on by Twin Rivers Media

By Laura Nelson

Five ways to maximize the power of a simple grazing exclosure to help truly know what you can grow.

Sponsored By:

 

It’s all too easy to bypass what we see – or fail to see – in the places we see the most.  

Noble Research Institute regenerative ranching advisors Will Moseley and Steve Swaffar say a grazing exclosure – a small, fenced area inside a grazing unit that livestock cannot access that gives the rancher a direct view of what and how much was grazed around it – is perhaps the simplest method to help see the potential of our land’s production.  

“We get in our routine, we overlook things, or don’t see what’s really out there,” Moseley says. “But once we stop and put an exclosure up and take a fresh look at what’s going on there, you can learn a lot.” 

How to build a grazing exclosure 

An exclosure can be as large or small as the materials you have available dictate, but Moseley recommends fencing off an area at least 3 feet by 3 feet. It doesn’t need to be any bigger than 6 by 6. Build it with whatever you have available – four cattle panels work well, or try a 16-foot hog panel bent into a square or circle, anchored by a t-post. 

Whatever you use, be sure it’s tall enough that your livestock – be they cattle, sheep, goats or other species – can’t reach over the top or access forage below or through the fencing. Sunlight also needs to penetrate the exclosure to allow photosynthesis.  

Select a location in your pasture that is a good representation of the forage growing there – not the best, but not the worst — and near a regularly trafficked area. Be sure to avoid actual pathways to the water tank or gates or close to a fence line, and set up the exclosure before you graze the surrounding pasture or paddock.  

Putting your exclosure to work 

The observations you might gather from a simple exclosure are as varied as the materials you can use to build it. Here, Swaffar and Moseley offer five ways to use an exclosure as a powerful assessment of your grazing potential:  

1. Potential forage production and animal consumption: At the end of the grazing event, measure the amount of forage standing in the exclosure against what’s left outside, and you’ll have a quick assessment of what your animals consumed. This is the biggest reason for an exclosure, Swaffar says. “You really want to know, what was the potential forage production in that pasture, and did I actually take the best advantage of it?”

2. What your livestock actually eat: Count and note the number and types of plant species within the grazing exclosure, and compare that observation with what you see outside the exclosure after a grazing event. 

“If you’re seeing certain plants inside the exclosure not occurring outside, that’s probably telling you that your animals are selecting for that species. They’re grazing it out,” Moseley says. If it’s a desirable species, consider changing the timing of that grazing event to allow those plants to more fully express themselves before they are grazed, or give that pasture more recovery time to allow it to establish a stronger population.  

3. Regrowth potential in grazing versus haying: If one of your goals is to reduce fuel inputs and tractor time by allowing livestock to harvest more of what you grow rather than taking it for hay, a grazing exclosure could quantify varying rates of regrowth.

Swaffar recounts a producer who set up two exclosures in the same pasture. Once the producer was finished grazing, he used a weed eater to cut the second exclosure’s forage to mark an equivalent to haying it. He could then compare plant growth and recovery among three scenarios: no harvest, livestock harvest and mechanical harvest. 

4. Compare the grazing habits of different livestock: Use an exclosure to help observe the differences in grazing patterns and preferences between species and classes of livestock in similar pasture conditions.  

5. Understand the role wildlife pressure plays in pasture potential: If you’re new to planting a cover crop, or working to re-establish native grasses in a pasture previously cultivated for introduced species and the seeding success rate is disappointing, a grazing exclosure will answer the question: did it fail because the seeds didn’t germinate, or did wildlife graze it out before you had a chance to see it flourish?  

Keeping track of your observations 

In all of these scenarios, record-keeping matters. How you do it is dictated by your personality and desire. At minimum, Swaffar recommends recording how many different species you see inside the exclosure and outside the exclosure, and how much forage is growing. That can be noted by a visual assessment, or it can be as scientific as a clip-and-weigh measurement to know exactly what your potential was.  

That might look like keeping a notebook on the pickup dash, typing a note on your phone, or photographing the exclosure from the same direction and distance at minimum before, during, and after the grazing event. His experience says once you’ve set up one exclosure, you’ll probably want more.  

“What’s really fun about this is that once you set one up, you start to get curious and excited about it,” Swaffar says. “You’ll find you might make an excuse to go by there and just see, next thing you know, you’re there on a weekly basis going, ‘Huh. That’s interesting, wonder what’s happening there?’  

“It really piques your curiosity, and that’s a good thing. That’s why it’s such a powerful observational tool.” 

 

Genomic Testing

Posted on by Audra McKinney

Genomic testing, is it worthwhile?

To say the past decade has been revolutionary in the world of cattle genetics is no understatement. Genomic testing, along with subsequent data collection, has been the spearhead of this rapid acceleration, moving the modern cow’s improvement by leaps and bounds.

The dairy industry has especially fallen in love with this technology. And while beef is certainly heading that direction, it has not yet reached the same widespread genomic heights of its dairy counterpart.

There is much to evaluate in terms of where genomics stand in today’s beef and where things are going. For many breeders, an investment in genomics is an investment in the future.

What that future might be depends on how producers and professionals use and interpret that information. With so much potential going on, it’s worth individual producers to ask – is genomic testing worthwhile?

Decoding information and making it all work

Researchers have used genomics and all its accompanying technology for a while. Right now, the beef industry is a good position to take the next steps and decide how and where to use that information on the industrial and production levels.

Typical genomic testing for cattle uses Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) technology  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-nucleotide_polymorphism .  SNP technology uses DNA markers to translate the unique genetic makeup of the individual animal. It can also be used to identify genetic abnormalities and mutations.

Research has told us a lot about how to translate genomic results.  Producers can have an idea of how certain animals will perform in specific management situations.

For example, according the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC),  https://www.beefresearch.ca/  leptin gene codes for a hormone that controls appetite and fat deposits.

In cattle, the base pair code of CC, TC or TT, and TT calves can deposit backfat faster and be on feed fewer days than TC and CC calves.

This kind of testing can help feedlot operators and cow-calf producers sort calves into more uniform feeding groups for optimal performance.

In a similar way, a lot of dairies have invested in genomic testing to assist with making their culling and replacement decisions.

There have been massive changes in even traits of low heritability. Fertility, productive life and health are among these.  Researchers are pouring a lot of time and research into feed efficiency.

 Genomic enhancement can improve the reliability of traditional EPDs. 

Individual producers can contribute a lot of merit to the national herd and industry standards. Data collection provides the information we have from genomics and their reliability.

Collecting more data allows us to learn more and increases our reliability.

Genomics are very reliable

Genomics offers benefits but a genomic number on a test or a pedigree shouldn’t dominate decision-making.

As we develop and learn more about this technology we continue to discuss the best way to apply it. 

The BCRC states that genomics works very reliably in cases where the SNP is known to occur within an actual gene. 

The BCRC mentions that in many cases the SNP may only be located somewhere near the gene. The accuracy of GE-EPDs or MBVs depends on the closeness of the tested animals’ relation to the population in which the prediction equations were developed. SNPs discovered in one bloodline may not allow GE-EPD/MBV prediction equations to work reliably in another. SNPs discovered in one breed are unlikely to help GE-EPD/MPV prediction equations produce reliable results in a different breed.

”There are different genomics tests available at different costs, the larger the chip used for the test, the more markers can be identified to obtain more information.

Tests can range from less than $20 to nearly $40and as simple as submitting a hair or blood sample. Many breed associations work with labs and make the sampling and testing process easy,

sometimes at a discount when obtained through other services.

Beyond the bottom line

Genomics solves certain genetic issues found in livestock and provides productivity advantages. 

One USDA statistic suggests that one in every five animals will carry a genetic defect capable of causing embryonic loss. 

Genomics allows us to identify animals going into stud service very quickly. 

These predictions are so accurate that farmers need not even cull animals carrying undesirable traits. They can manage their mating to pass down positive traits and mitigate negative ones.

 Genomics can help reduce the amount of inbreeding.

Health traits and diseases resistance are another area genomics are rapidly working to accelerate. A lot of health and wellness traits tend to have very low heritability.

It can take many years of pristine breeding for them to gain little impact in the traditional way. For a long time, they weren’t even major players in sire se-lection.

In less than a decade, they’ve seen massive improvements.

Other welfare-related traits are also on the genomics docket. This includes things like heat tolerance and hoof durability.

Some researchers currently study complex genetically-influenced behaviors such as grazing ability and efficiency.

Genomic knowledge has already made an incredible impact. The era is still in its infancy. Researchers will learn and discover much more. 

Beef will only invest more into genomics through both research and field testing.

There’s enough of a future in the technology making it worth a serious look and consideration. Even if not applicable to one’s specific operation and market, directly or indirectly.

You can expect genomics to have an impact in the future.

 

American Cattlemen, January 2020

https://americancattlemen.com/

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