Which Statement Best Contrasts the Epd Selection of Dairy Cows and Beef Cows?
If you raise cattle nigh of your life, you'll take the opportunity to influence about 10 generations. Therefore, each generation and each mating is a big responsibility. Every bit a breeder, commit to identifying not simply the most pop bull merely theBEST fit for your herd. To accomplish this, yous'll have to sort through all the information to observe what you need and want.
There are countless pieces of data available when seeking to evaluate potential A.I. sires or herd bulls. While originally adult decades agone, Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) are considered the gold standard of tools bachelor for genetic progress. Today, EPDs are bachelor for functioning, maternal and carcass traits. Indexes also be for different situations, and these keep to evolve (more on indexes some other time).
Fifty-fifty after seeing EPDs in bull sale catalogs and A.I. sire directories for years, making sense of it all can sometimes seem heed boggling. Let'due south take a step back and review the foundation.
Where are yous now? Where do y'all want to be? What are you paid for?
Before making mating decisions, consider the genetic makeup of your cowherd. Are your cows predominantly British-based, Continental-based or a blend? For commercial herds, it makes sense (and cents) to utilise crossbreeding for the added do good of lowly heritable traits like reproductive traits. It as well makes sense to select for highly heritable traits like growth and carcass traits using EPDs. For example, Angus-based commercial herds would mate well with a Simmental or Charolais bull that has top percentile EPDs for growth, ribeye area and low fat thickness EPDs.
As well, consider the strengths and weaknesses of your cowherd. For instance, if your herd has a college than desirable amount of sparse and/or open cows it may be benign to choose sires that are lower milk EPD and college $EN (Angus) or Stayability (Cerise Angus). Unlike areas of the state and unlike management levels crave different levels of milk EPD, so information technology is important to select theoptimal EPD level, not necessarily the highest. The use of high accuracy A.I. sires is the best method for matching the needs of each female person in the herd too as the goals of your breeding program as a whole.
After considering the current genetics of your cowherd, think about your goals for futurity production. Do you wish to grow the herd by retaining home-raised heifers or volition nigh calves be sold to the feedlot?
Consider the genetic makeup of your herd, the strengths and weaknesses of your cowherd and your goals for future production.
If yous intend to keep your heifers for replacements, then emphasis should be placed on bulls with high-ranking maternal EPDs like Calving Ease Maternal (CEM), Milk, Mature Weight (MW), Mature Height (MH) and other similar traits. EPDs are even (finally) available for foot and udder traits in some breeds. In dissimilarity, if you lot sell all calves to market place, you should focus on A.I. bulls that are trait leaders for performance traits like Weaning Weight (WW). Both herds should keep Calving Ease Direct (CED) and Birth Weight (BW) at reasonable levels (many herds use breed average or better every bit a threshold); this helps go on calving difficulty to a minimum and maximizes the number of weaned calves. Ranches that retain buying greatly benefit from selection for growth and carcass traits (YW, Marbling, REA, Carcass Weight).
In short, by using EPDs and selecting for practical and functional phenotype (structure, muscling, capacity, residue, etc.), you can be certain yous are making the near informed decision possible. At GENEX, this is chosen a combination of cow sense and science.
Agreement EPDs and Accuracy
EPDs or Expected Progeny Differences exercise exactly what their name implies: predict how a bull's calves volition compare to calves of the average bull of the same breed.
When making breeding decisions using EPDs, information technology is helpful to consider the accurateness values of those EPDs. Young sires with genomically enhanced EPDs usually take accuracy values in the .30-.40 range while mature bulls with recorded progeny data have much higher accuracy values. The closer the accuracy value is to i, the window of alter for each EPD becomes much smaller.Using high accuracy A.I. sires chosen to complement the needs and goals of the ranch is undoubtedly the most economical and practical method to make multi-trait genetic progress in a commercial cowherd, regardless of the herd's goals.
Build Your Team, Build Your Noesis
While reading this article, if your mind drifted to thoughts of corn yields or those truck commercials featuring new fancy tailgates, hang on for this one last point: if genetics isn't your strong suit, build your squad!
Don't be afraid to seek assistance from an A.I. industry professional person, brood association representative or your seedstock provider. Inquire lots of questions of these people and employ them as part of your network of trusted professionals.
Use all the tools bachelor (information and people) to breed your x generations of amend, more than assisting cattle.
Source: https://genex.coop/epds-as-a-tool-in-bull-selection/
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