Brandon wrote:
The Auburn Bull Test has enough data to calculate Feed Efficiency EPD's on bulls that have sired calves entered in the test. I have been asking Lisa to do it for a few years.
On another topic; BW EPD's:
I know of two flushmate bulls that have totally varying BW EPD's. One has a 5.6 and one has a 1.2, with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The breed average is 1.3 .
Would this wildly fluctuating phenomenon be known without EPD's?
I would like to see feed efficiency EPDs; but the problem is collecting the intake data. Not many breeders can assemble a feed pen full of 50 steers out of registered mamas ALL sired by the same bull. Pen data is virtually useless to breeders even if you meticulously weighed the bulls and the feed. Unless you are doing some kind of high tech performance test you can't collect individual feed intakes on anything other than a barned show calf. In a normal feedlot the animals all eat out of the same bunk so who knows how much an individual bull consumed? It would be extremely difficult to collect enough data to get a breed wide EPD for feed efficiency. It is a number we would all love to have; but I don't expect to see it any time soon.
The Auburn Bull Test has enough data to calculate Feed Efficiency EPD's on bulls that have sired calves entered in the test. I have been asking Lisa to do it for a few years.
On another topic; BW EPD's:
I know of two flushmate bulls that have totally varying BW EPD's. One has a 5.6 and one has a 1.2, with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The breed average is 1.3 .
Would this wildly fluctuating phenomenon be known without EPD's?