Selecting Replacements

Exercise on tour shows there's more to it than what meets the eye.

When it comes to choosing replacement heifers, there is more to it than what meets the eye. That is what cattlemen and women of the Show-Me Select Replacement Heifer Program learned on their annual regional beef industry tour.

More than 50 top commercial beef producers from Missouri began their Kansas tour at Fink Beef Genetics, a family-owned Angus business north of Manhattan, to gain a better understanding of genomic technology.

Armed with a little information on their EPDs (expected progeny differences) and observations of phenotype, participants were challenged to evaluate six heifers and assign their best guess of each one's GeneMax™ score.

"The limited tools we provided for this contest are not all that different from what many use today," says Kara Wilson, CAB supply programs manager, who led the demonstration.

Only six entries correctly ranked the pen with the true highest-scoring heifer.

The take-home message is simple, Wilson says. "Visual characteristics and sire group are not enough information to make accurate and market-competitive herd decisions."
Genomically enhanced EPDs account for higher accuracies and allow purebred Angus seedstock producers to gain a better picture of what those cattle will achieve, before collecting years of performance data.

"In an industry where time is money, CAB is taking this concept to the commercial Angus breeder at a time when the demand for premium beef is as high as it has ever been," says Wilson.

While DNA tests for registered cattle look at a wide range of traits, the GeneMax focus on gain and grade targets the two areas most relevant to cattle feeders and growers aiming for the CAB brand.

As the group of cattlemen from Missouri learned, GeneMax is an affordable tool that reveals a calf's potential earlier, when visual inspection and pedigree aren't enough.