Texan":9lokzff2 said:
greenwillowherefords":9lokzff2 said:
Mother gave over a gallon of milk on test twice out of the back 2 teats alone, was in top 7% milk EPD.
greenwillowherefords":9lokzff2 said:
The other cow mentioned concerning milking ability, it was once two days in a row, and we are not dairy people or experts, but we found out how much she was giving. At the time she had a 20 or 21 MM EPD and I would say it was pretty accurate.
Willow, can you see from reading your own quotes how some of us might be a little concerned about the EPD numbers you guys toss around? You talk about how much milk she gave "on test twice out of the back 2 teats alone" and in the same statement brag about her milk EPD. I guess I'm wrong, but I consider the term "on test" to involve some more scientific methods with a little bit better controls. Then you admit that you milked her "once two days in a row" and use that to conclude that her EPD was "pretty accurate."
That might lead some of us less knowledgable types to question the inputs used by you registered breeders to come up with
all EPD numbers! Are you that casual about the use of
scales for your BW, WW and YW numbers? Do you just try to get close?
The milk EPD is pounds of calf, not pounds of milk. As soon as milk EPDs came out several years ago, some people promptly went out and milked their Angus cows. Sure enough, they found that cows with higher milk EPDs produced more milk than cows with lower milk EPDs. But that doesn't affect actual EPDs created by the breed associations. Neither does this report, but I thought some people might be interested:
http://beef.unl.edu/stories/200312230.shtml
Differences in Milk EPD Were Reflective of Differences In Weaning Weight EPD
“A large five-state, five-year study was conducted to validate the hypothesis that milk EPD truly reflects differences in weaning weight due to milk. Cows were maintained at six different locations representing relatively diverse environments throughout the southeastern quadrant of the U.S. Twenty-four Angus sires were selected for either low or high milk EPD, but with similar growth EPDs, and mated to Angus cows. The average spread in milk EPD between the low and high lines was 39 lb (-13 to +26). Lactation records for 192 daughters were used to evaluate 12-hour milk yield and weaning weight of progeny. The correlation between sires milk EPD and 12-hour milk yield was moderate to high (0.56). The difference between lines for 12 hour milk yield was 1.45 lb. The difference between low and high lines in calf weaning weight was 34 lb, which compared favorably with the spread between lines in milk EPD (39 lb). There was no statistical interaction between genetic line and location, which means that sires tended to rank similarly within each location. When milk EPDs were first published in the 1980s, there was considerable skepticism among beef producers. However, this study, along with previous studies, indicates that differences in milk EPD are reflective of differences in weaning weight between progeny (Baker et al. 2003. J. Anim. Sci. 81:1406).”
I’ll cut this out for emphasis:
“There was no statistical interaction between genetic line and location, which means that sires tended to rank similarly within each location.”
Thus, if a bull's daughters ranked high in milk production in one georgraphical area, he would likely rank the same in another area, when compared to the same bulls. I believe the same goes for other EPDs. Whether the bull is raised in Nebraska or Florida, his EPDs will allow you to compare him to bulls anywhere of any age.
ay Rupert Tone 092
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