New Angus EPD

Help Support CattleToday:

Brandonm2

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
2,608
Reaction score
1
Location
Alabama
I like EPDs. I like having lots of EPDs; but this one sounds a little strange. Angus is about to release a heifer preganacy EPD. I don't deny that there is a genetic effect cause too how often heifers will settle in a breeding season; BUT the biggest largest cause is NUTRITION. I have always been of the view that if 5-10% of the heifers did not settle, that that was just nature's way of telling me 1) that I didn't feed the heifers well enough or 2) those heifers were going to be low fertility anyway so needed to get gone. Now Angus is going to blame the heifers' daddys. I like the concept; but that seems like such an awfully low heritabilty number that I am not sure what value to place on it; but like all EPDs I pity the bull that is not in the top half of the breed.

http://www.angus.org/release_hp_2007_summary.html
 
It'll be like all the other EPS, based on contemporary groups. If you don't feed enough, the heifers that cycle earlier will be more fertile or if you feed a lot, there will be earlier cycling heifers. Management shouldn't play into it.

From the link:

"Figure 4 provides an example of the use of heifer pregnancy EPDs. Assume there are 100 daughters for each of the two bulls, managed and treated alike in the same breeding environment. When comparing the two bulls, one would expect an average of 5 more pregnant daughters out of 100 from Bull A compared with Bull B. Essentially Bull A's daughters have a 5% greater chance of becoming pregnant than Bull B's daughters."
 
Red Angus has had it for sometime now. The only heifers we've had that didn;t settle in the normal 45 day breeding season are sired by bulls with low HPG.
It's as much a property of maturity/puberty as anything.

dun
 
From the Red Angus association:
Heifer Pregnancy (HPG) - predicts the probability of heifers conceiving to
calve at two years of age. Many breeds offer genetic predictions of yearling bull
scrotal circumference as an indicator of age of puberty. Red Angus' HPG EPD
offers more than an indicator trait, it selects for producers' desired response:
pregnant heifers.
 
This ought to be good.

Heifer pregnancy EPD based on a breed w/o total herd reporting.

That is a laugh.


Badlands
 
Badlands":2gao1ztp said:
This ought to be good.

Heifer pregnancy EPD based on a breed w/o total herd reporting.

That is a laugh.


Badlands

I'm laughing all the way to the bank, Badlands. :lol:
 
Yep Angus breeders are the only ones who cheat and total herd reporting keeps those other breeders from cheating. :roll: Come on Dave I know you are not anywhere that naive. I bet none of the breeders have ever stepped on a scale or falsified any data to the associations with whole herd reporting.

I know this is going to open a can of worms but... I will submit that in my opinion the Angus (Black) Association EPDs are more accurate even without whole herd reporting due to the sheer number of the data that they get versus only associations. And just because they dont require it doesnt mean that most herds don't report every calf. I know for the second year in a row I will be sending data in on calves in single contemporary groups. If not for the simple fact I want the weights in the database when I get ready to sell the female 2-5 years down the line.
 
jscunn:

would you register a 110 lb calf that was dead at birth?
 
Well, you guys are guessing. I am not. I already know the answer. I don't have to theorize about it.

I reviewed some of the preliminary RAAA threshold papers that were based on THR and those that were not, where they were trying to estimate effects of THR on such things.


Bottomline, w/o THR the EPD are off. How much? I guess you won't know until you actually go to THR.

HPG won't suffer as bad as stayability, though. I think HPG might be the AAA attempt at gaining some insight into stayability.



jscunn, you are both right and wrong, it totally depends. :lol:


Badlands
 
I know for the second year in a row I will be sending data in on calves in single contemporary groups.

Js, can you re-word this? I'm not tracking with you.

Badlands
 
MAtt,

Of course not but I would send in the calving data on the cow showing the calf died at birth plus the BW.

Dave,

What I meant by that is.. I have one heifer calf that will be in a contemporary group of one. Since she is in a group of one when I turn in the weights on her the EPD will still be interims.

After rereading it I understand why that confused you. (1 animal in a contemporary group not 1 contemporary group).
 
jscunn":1qtidkwk said:
MAtt,

Of course not but I would send in the calving data on the cow showing the calf died at birth plus the BW.

what association are you turning these in to? i dont know that you can turn in any performance records (BW in this case) for an animal that is not registered. maybe there is another section that lets you turn it in just to reflect the dam, but i havent seen it. if you are putting it into AIMS, that is not turning it in; it's only a record on your computer.
 
I can't speak for most associations; but Hereford wants data on every calf of registered parents, whether or not you elect to register that calf. And I THINK Angus is the same way.
 
In Canada the Angus Assoc requires that if you are a herd that has EPD"s than you must submit all bwt, and performance on every animal registered in your inventory. If not, all of your EPD's are suspended. If you chose not to register them that is up to us, but the weights must be submitted.

For those who don't want EPD's they can do whatever the heck they want to, just don't get numbers!
 
SEC":39gqanqp said:
In Canada the Angus Assoc requires that if you are a herd that has EPD"s than you must submit all bwt, and performance on every animal registered in your inventory. If not, all of your EPD's are suspended. If you chose not to register them that is up to us, but the weights must be submitted.

For those who don't want EPD's they can do whatever the heck they want to, just don't get numbers!

is that a Breedplan registry?
 
I like the Angus BRS.

They started it after some of their commercial breeders had been going to the Simmental Association for 15 years for the same thing.

Badlands
 

Latest posts

Top