houstoncutter":1wjog3za said:
Well here my 2 cents as a commercial cattleman. I personally know two big time Angus and Limouisn breeders that play fast and loose with their numbers. They back of the grass and feed in the last tri-mester, so the calves will have a small birth weight. Its the last tri-mester when a calf will get his size. After their born they put em on the best they have so you get that small bw and a good ww. I say look at the sires actual birth weight as well a his parents. If the line of cattle produce small calve it will show. Most especially if the sire has been used in different herds.
Rodney
Rodney, If that were all they were doing to improve their epds in their herd I wouldn't be so hard against them. I even know of several ranches of different breeds that keep ratio individuals in their herd when they normally would have culled them. Not only does it make a farce of their epd's it hurts overall productivity of the american cow herd.In the initial stages of a bulls accuracy the epd game also descriminates against the cow herd that has less variation. Smaller breeders , closed herds, uniform bunches of cattle, these are all fair game for the larger ranches that as you said play fast and loose with their epd game.One one word Frankie (Krebs)