Choose your target market and use EPDs and physical characteristics in your cow herd to hit that market.


“Still,” she says, “I’m asked to give a lot of very basic


EPD talks, like ‘What is an EPD?’ and ‘How do you use it?’ When a new EPD comes out, of course, those always require a bit of educational process.” EPDs compare an animal’s inherited and perfor-


mance traits with others in the breed. AAA and other breed associations use the EPDs from a registered ani- mal’s sire and dam to calculate interim numbers for the offspring. Then, as ranchers collect performance information on those animals such as birth weights on calves, weaning weights and yearling weights, those data go into their EPDs. Finally, as the animal is used as a sire or dam, the information from its progeny is also added to the book. AAA is also incorporating information from DNA


tests into EPDs. Last year, the breed association’s Angus Genetics subsidiary completed a recalibration of its HD 50K test, which adds results of DNA tests conducted by AAA partners Zoetis and Igenity to the association’s own performance database. Amen says the 50,000 DNA markers supplied by the


2 companies “play a fairly large part in our EPDs. We have had more than 50,000 of those particular tests


80 The Cattleman April 2014


purchased by our members that are now going into the EPDs, so we call them Genomically-Enhanced EPDs.” The impact of the genetic information is trait specifi c, but Amen says they can give ranchers a comfort level as if those animals already had 10 to 30 calves on the ground. EPDs carry with them an accuracy value that gives


the user an idea of how much information is infl uencing that number. Amen says if an animal has no progeny information and all that’s available is its pedigree, its EPD would carry an accuracy of 0.05. If genomic data are also available, the accuracy level


rises to 0.25 to 0.35 — that is, the equivalent of 25 to 30 calves’ worth of information — while very high ac- curacy numbers like 0.8 or 0.9 are seen in bulls used in artifi cial insemination (AI) programs that have a high number of progeny. Amen explains, “We bought and sold cattle for


years on the equivalent of just knowing the pedigree. Take half the sire EPD, half the dam EPD and you add them together. On occasion, a pedigree-estimated EPD would indicate a bull calf should be outstanding for marbling. You get a little way down the road and


thecattlemanmagazine.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108