horned hereford

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DRB

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Does an epd birth weight score of 6 on a Horned Hereford bull indicate that this bull may be likely to throw calves that are 6 lbs over the average weight of Hereford calves?
 
DRB":7wrerh98 said:
Does an epd birth weight score of 6 on a Horned Hereford bull indicate that this bull may be likely to throw calves that are 6 lbs over the average weight of Hereford calves?

No. Breed averages on EPDs change every time a new sire summary comes out. I assume that Hereford EPDs are calculated much like Angus. The Angus Association averaged weights reported in 1976 (I think) and called that 0 EPD. Every year since then EPDs have gone up. The average BW EPD for Angus is now 2.7 and may change slightly with the next sire summary. The average Hereford EPD for BW is 3.9. What that BW EPD of 6 tells you is that you can EXPECT the calves sired by that bull to weigh six more pounds at birth than if you bred the same cow to a Hereford bull with a BW EPD of 0. EPDs will never tell you what something will weigh.
 
Would you consider a bull with an epd birth weight of 6 to be an easy calving bull? Or only a better calving bull than one with an epd of 7.
 
DRB":1vjdm411 said:
Would you consider a bull with an epd birth weight of 6 to be an easy calving bull? Or only a better calving bull than one with an epd of 7.

"Easy calving" is an opinion. Some people don't seem to mind pulling calves. They consider a C-section a difficult birth. I've seen young cowboys argue which is the easier pull, Simmentals or Charlaois. But I use EPDs to make it as easy on the heifers as I can. So no way would I consider using him on heifers. He'd only be marginally better than the 7. The Angus Association recommends using bulls with a BW EPD of less than 3 on heifers. I would assume the Hereford Association has a similar recommendation? You could email them and ask. The website is http://www.hereford.org. Good luck....
 
On heifers stick with a maximum of 2. If his accuracy is below .80 I would go with a 1. They also have calving ease EPDs but the accuracies are very low. There are plenty of bulls that have low BW and high maternal and carcass traits along with good growth. Even on mature cows we only will go wtih a 3 for BW.

dun


DRB":36yfot62 said:
Would you consider a bull with an epd birth weight of 6 to be an easy calving bull? Or only a better calving bull than one with an epd of 7.
 

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