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Breeding / Calving Issues
How much trouble should I expect?
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<blockquote data-quote="Katpau" data-source="post: 1616370" data-attributes="member: 9933"><p>I raise black Angus, so was unfamiliar with the Epd's on the Reds. I had to look it up and what I saw was that breed average BW was indeed -1.3. The birth weight Epd you show as .5 would be equivalent to a +3.1 in Angus, so yes, that is pretty high, but more important than birth weight is the CED. That stands for Calving Ease Direct and compares the ease of calving a bull's calves. You said they were 9 and 10's and breed average was 12. I found a link to a Red Angus chart that said 5 was average and 10 was in the top 10% for calving ease. If that is correct, I would still call them heifer bulls. Where did you see breed average is 12? The following information was from the RA website which showed a breed average CED of 5.</p><p>https://redangus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ranchers_Guide_to_EPDs_2-15.pdf </p><p></p><p>I also found information on a fairly recent study that compared the calving ease of bulls with CEDs of -5, +6 & 17.</p><p>Bull A with a CED of -5 had 599 observed births and 87% unassisted</p><p>Bull B with a CED of +6 had 698 observed births and 93.6% unassisted</p><p>Bull C with a CED of +17 had 1558 observed births and 95% unassisted</p><p>https://redangus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Red_Angus_EPDs_8-2017_web-1.pdf </p><p></p><p>Hopefully this information should be encouraging. Of course your heifers are more than 1/2 the equation. If they are in good shape with sufficient pelvis size, I doubt there will be a problem. I would not cut back on their nutrition in hopes of reducing calf size. That will just leave them in poor condition for delivering a calf. The heifer's body will likely short her own nutritional needs before shorting the developing calf.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Katpau, post: 1616370, member: 9933"] I raise black Angus, so was unfamiliar with the Epd's on the Reds. I had to look it up and what I saw was that breed average BW was indeed -1.3. The birth weight Epd you show as .5 would be equivalent to a +3.1 in Angus, so yes, that is pretty high, but more important than birth weight is the CED. That stands for Calving Ease Direct and compares the ease of calving a bull's calves. You said they were 9 and 10's and breed average was 12. I found a link to a Red Angus chart that said 5 was average and 10 was in the top 10% for calving ease. If that is correct, I would still call them heifer bulls. Where did you see breed average is 12? The following information was from the RA website which showed a breed average CED of 5. https://redangus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ranchers_Guide_to_EPDs_2-15.pdf I also found information on a fairly recent study that compared the calving ease of bulls with CEDs of -5, +6 & 17. Bull A with a CED of -5 had 599 observed births and 87% unassisted Bull B with a CED of +6 had 698 observed births and 93.6% unassisted Bull C with a CED of +17 had 1558 observed births and 95% unassisted https://redangus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Red_Angus_EPDs_8-2017_web-1.pdf Hopefully this information should be encouraging. Of course your heifers are more than 1/2 the equation. If they are in good shape with sufficient pelvis size, I doubt there will be a problem. I would not cut back on their nutrition in hopes of reducing calf size. That will just leave them in poor condition for delivering a calf. The heifer's body will likely short her own nutritional needs before shorting the developing calf. [/QUOTE]
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