everything else, because within 2 or 3 generations your cow herd tends to change into something that is not a reproductively effi cient group any- more. You may yield some higher carcass value, but you’re sacrifi cing your cow herd. “Or, if you only concentrate on
maternal or growth EPDs or traits, then sometimes you’ll sacrifi ce on your carcass traits.” He also likes to be able to track
the performance of bulls he sells to a commercial operator who retains ownership or gets feedlot results on the offspring. “That really tells you more what you’re doing from a carcass standpoint than a piece of paper does,” he says.
We’ve mapped the genome While EPDs, Satree says, are a
piece of the puzzle, the real solution will lie in interpretation of DNA.
“We now have our genetic profi le test of our HD 50K,” he says. “I have been about DNA ever since we were back in our old ‘1-star/2-star’ days, which was back 12 to 15 years ago. We’ve made tremendous steps in 15 years. We’ve mapped the genome now. Everybody thinks we have all the answers, but we’re still a long, long ways from where we want to be.” For example, Satree says, a bull and a cow could each be in the top 1 percent of yearling weight on the HD 50K, but they may produce offspring in the bottom 5 percent. “It’s not refi ned enough right
now,” he says. “We’re on the right track, but we need to do a lot of research before we can get the guar- antees in there.” Once that happens, Satree be-
lieves EPDs will go off to the side. He says while EPDs provide a good guideline that helps a lot of ranch-
ers along, “As we go into the future and we refi ne our DNA fi ndings and what actually does relate to each individual chromosome and what can make that animal yield the best, those are the things that I think are more important than a theory and hypothesis situation like we have with our EPD.” And the Angus Association’s
Amen says they’re working toward that future. “There is a lot of infor- mation, and the data really has be- come very, very valuable,” she says. “We’ve had Angus breeders that have collected performance data for years. That is what has allowed our EPD system to become so powerful. That vast database of information is also what’s allowed us to be ahead of the game in terms of the genom- ics, and now we’re accumulating genomic information at about the same rate — very, very quickly.”
tscra.org
April 2014 The Cattleman 83
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