EPD Data Collection

[Bestoutwest]

How is this done? Is there a certain number of cattle slaughtered for each animal they are collecting data on before they can be determined? How do they collect birth weight and weaning weights?

Thanks for the help.

 

[dun]

BW, calving ease, WW and YW are calculated from the data submitted from the producer, those data are also used to produce Stay and milk EPDs. For retained ownership calves through slaughter the slaughter facility will submit the carcass results to the owner and they can submit the data. The ACCuracy of each EPD is determined by the volume of data provided

 

[djinwa]

Has a producer ever cheated when reporting numbers?

 

[cmf1]

As I understand it, the erroneous numbers are cancelled out more or less by the accuracy numbers.
Low ACC should then mean low concistency and not dependable.
High ACC (more progeny analyzed ) should mean more consistent, dependable results.
Erroneous numbers happen for whatever reason, so if you like a bull and like his numbers, do a lttle looking at his accuracy and how many animals and herds those numbers are derived from.
An EPD is like a circular saw. Not very usefull without a power source and a sharp blade. And even then you can't build a house with just a saw.
Girls use tools too.
Someone with more experience than me can tell you alot more about them than I can. This is just the can of worms I have discovered in trying to apply EPDs to my little deal.

 

[dun]

For carcass EPDs I neglected to include ultrasound data, that would be the numbers that the producer couldn;t fudge on but a lot of it has to do with the feeding regimen that is done prior to the ultrasound. If A producer didn;t like the numbers from the indeendent lab they could just not submit them to the associaton

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

People can and do fudge the numbers, but like CMF said the amount of numbers coming in help eliminate that. We are THE (total herd enrollment) in the Simmental breed, and what that means is we have to submit all birth, weaning and yearling weights if we still own the animal, and get to register the calf at a discounted rate. Last year ASA started a docility epd, and in just a year the number is pretty darn accurate. At weaning, producers access the calf temperament going through the chute and give it a score of 1,2 or 3. From that small piece of data, they have a docility score. I can tell you that sires that have a low docility number have a tendency to have loopy calves (nuts!), so it worked in that case. Your highest accuracies are on your AI sires, since there are producers all over the US submitting data on those bulls and have no reason to lie (they do not own the bull).
AFA carcass data, I think that bull owners send steers and heifers to the feedlot that then collects the carcass data and gives it back to the ASA, so the numbers are represented by those animals. Also, there is the new DNA data they are using that improves the accuracy of the data.
Hope that helps!

 

[Bestoutwest]

Can someone explain the importance of scrotal circumference to me? I'm assuming that it means the bull has a higher chance of being able to service more cows, but when one assumes.....

Thanks

 

[dun]

Can someone explain the importance of scrotal circumference to me? I'm assuming that it means the bull has a higher chance of being able to service more cows, but when one assumes.....

Thanks

Scrotal is (in theory) an indication of the fertility of his daughters

 

[bigag03]

Can someone explain the importance of scrotal circumference to me? I'm assuming that it means the bull has a higher chance of being able to service more cows, but when one assumes.....

Thanks

Scrotal is (in theory) an indication of the fertility of his daughters

Actually, Scrotal Circumference has been shown to be correlated to age of puberty in daughters. This is a common misconception that occurs with this trait. With many breeders pushing heifers to calve a 2 years of age, daughters of smaller scrotal bulls can be observed as being subfertile because they had not reached puberty early enough to get bred. In a program where those heifers were not required to calve until 2 1/2 to 3 years of age, it is likely that no difference in breeding rate or "fertility" would be noticed.

 

[dun]

Can someone explain the importance of scrotal circumference to me? I'm assuming that it means the bull has a higher chance of being able to service more cows, but when one assumes.....

Thanks

Scrotal is (in theory) an indication of the fertility of his daughters

Actually, Scrotal Circumference has been shown to be correlated to age of puberty in daughters. This is a common misconception that occurs with this trait. With many breeders pushing heifers to calve a 2 years of age, daughters of smaller scrotal bulls can be observed as being subfertile because they had not reached puberty early enough to get bred. In a program where those heifers were not required to calve until 2 1/2 to 3 years of age, it is likely that no difference in breeding rate or "fertility" would be noticed.

I was going by memory from 20 years ago. Not the first mistake or only I made today.

 

[Kscattle]

How is $EN and DOC figured?