Help with birth weight EPD's

[Ben]

Hello! I apprecaite in advance any help y'all can give me with this....I have a two year-old Brangus bull with a B.W. EPD of 3.9. This EPD thing is real new to me. Is he a good candidate for breeding heifers based upon this number? Thanks!

 

[Chuckie]

Ben, I'm familiar with the Angus side of the "Brangus." The 3.9 would be a bit heavy for a heifer bull. I personally would like to see it less than 2. They say to try to keep it below 3. I would try to keep the heifer BW to breed with pretty low if I used him. If you could find one on the negative side, it would be better. One like -1.6. I am sure that some heifers have had calves with a bull with his BW, but then there are heifers that had a lot of trouble too. What kind of heifers are you breeding to this bull? I am sure that the other guys here can help you if you are crossing them with other breeds.

 

[Arnold Ziffle]

I could very easily be wrong on this, but I seem to recall that for heifers bred to Brangus bulls the current recommendation is to have the bull's birthweight EPD of no greater than 1.0. Also, your two year old bull's 3.9 is based only on his pedigree and comes with the lowest level of accuracy. Of course, a lot will depend on the physical size (pelvic) of your heifers, their breed, etc. Do you know the actual birthweight of your bull? If the info is available to you, see if there were any real heavy birthweights within the last 2 or 3 generations in his pedigree? If there were, view that negatively.

A number of CattleToday members are Brangus breeders and perhaps they can give you some better info --- you could also consider calling the breed association for comments and/or literature.

 

[Ben]

Thank y'all for the info. My heifers are Angus/Brangus cross, and cows are Angus. I do not have the bull's birthweight. He has bred three heifers as a kind of test, as I have a dozen ready to breed this fall. Of those three heifers, two delivered fine, one calf got stuck at the hip. All of his calves from the Angus cows have been real small at birth. I have been trying to decide whether to give him a try for the others as well....