ANGUS BEEF BULLETIN EXTRA

December 20, 2018 | Vol. 11 : No. 12

Association Perspective

EPDs are easy.

Another year has come to an end. It was a year with many new innovations, technologies and programs introduced. It seems with every passing year there is more and more information being fed to us. So much so that, quite frankly, it can be a pain to process. This concept is especially true to those in the beef cattle business.

These new innovations can range from a new vaccination protocol, a pharmaceutical product, a feed additive, all the way to a new method of marketing calves or a new regulation that needs to be complied with, and everything in between. Cattlemen are constantly learning and keeping up at a rapid pace to keep their businesses successful. One thing that doesn’t need to be intimidating is using expected progeny differences (EPDs) when selecting breeding stock.

January Angus Beef Bulletin cover.

For more information on how to use EPDs to select bulls, refer to Kasey Brown’s article “Bull Buying 101” in the January print edition of the Angus Beef Bulletin. You can subscribe to the magazine at www.angus.org/ABBsubscribe.

Opening a sale book and seeing all of the numbers can be a daunting moment. You may see the sire’s EPDs, dam’s EPDs, the animal’s actual production information, in-herd ratios, breed percentile rankings and genomic percentile rankings all before even laying eyes on the animal of interest’s EPDs.

Some of the most common questions I will receive at a sale are “Should I look at genomic results? Actual production info? Dam’s information?” My answer is always the same: Look at the EPD itself. Understand that it is still important to view all information available, especially on some of those tough decisions. Remember, that long list of information I listed above is already computed and weighted into the animal’s genomically enhanced EPDs, making it the best tool available.

Prior to purchasing new bulls or replacement females, develop an understanding of every EPD, decide which EPDs are important to your operation, and emphasize those in your selection process. While doing that, maintain a balance of other traits to avoid single-trait selection. Plus, always evaluate the cattle visually for feet and leg structure, body type and other phenotypically important qualities.

In a time when so much information is available, remember to keep it simple and look at the animal’s final EPD that encompasses all other information.

Enjoy the holidays with friends and family, and let’s look forward to another progressive year ahead of us in 2019.

Editor’s note: Regional Manager Jake Pickering covers the states of Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Click here to find the regional manager for your state.