Brangus EPDs Hereford EPDs

[midtncattle]

If I wanted to run a hereford bull over brangus cows for replacement females and salebarn steers what EPDs should I focus on for the bull and the cow? What would be acceptable numbers for the cows milk and TM ?

 

[IluvABbeef]

There are just way too many unknowns here. A lot of the numbers really depends on what quality cows you have or get. Once you get your cows, then you can make your decision as to what bull is best for the happy medium you have to try to achieve with maternal qualities and terminal qualities. In most cases, you have to choose one or the other.

But really, there's no justification to answer this question when we've got nothing to go off of.

 

[Herefords.US]

If I wanted to run a hereford bull over brangus cows for replacement females and salebarn steers what EPDs should I focus on for the bull and the cow? What would be acceptable numbers for the cows milk and TM ?

I guess I'm a little confused here, too! Generally a person already has/owns their cows, so there's not a lot of choosing what their EPDs are going to be. And I've said it here several times before, EPDs on almost ANY cow and ANY unproven bull is a bit of a crapshoot. So much so, I don't think you can just rely on them to make decisions when there's much better information available - like information on their sire/dam from the breeder, their actual performance data, etc. etc. The honest assessment of a trusted breeder should far outweigh any information that could be derived from low accuracy EPDs.

I also agree that you have to make a choice between wanting replacement females or wanting "terminal" sale steers. The bull that you would choose as optimal for either choice would not probably be the optimal one for the other.

George

 

[midtncattle]

Thanks for answers. I am getting a better understanding.

 

[B&M Farms]

If you plan on keeping heifers don't put too much emphasis on the bulls individual weight numbers. Bigger is not always better.