South Devon Update from Australia.

[Anonymous]

Great news from Australia. Torr Down South Devons have sold the first Australian South Devon semen to South Africa and the second lot to England. The bull is Torr Down Hermes 3, he already has progeny in Canada and New Zealand. This is more positive news for our very much underrated breed. This bull is a long polled sire without any EBVs,just goes to show experienced cattle people don't need them.

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[Anonymous]

> Great news from Australia. Torr
> Down South Devons have sold the
> first Australian South Devon semen
> to South Africa and the second lot
> to England. The bull is Torr Down
> Hermes 3, he already has progeny
> in Canada and New Zealand. This is
> more positive news for our very
> much underrated breed. This bull
> is a long polled sire without any
> EBVs,just goes to show experienced
> cattle people don't need them. Colin, you go right ahead and pay no attention to data if you wish, thats your prerogative. But epds are here to stay and many people in the cattle business swear by them as one tool in the selection process. I have a good friend he is now about 50 yrs. old, just took over a commercial herd that his Dad had run all his life(his dad is now in his 70's). He made this statement to me, "You know some of the best looking bulls we purchased didn't get the best calves,as a matter of fact some of the not so good looking bulls got the better calves." I realize this is a broad and general statement but to me its one of the better reasons to use every tool available including epds in the selection process. I would never buy a bull anymore based soley on his looks-for one thing who wants to posssibly wind up pulling a bunch of calves? No sale around here of any size is without epds on the animals and all the buyers that I have seen go over them very closely before narrowing down their choices. Just what I have observed.

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[Anonymous]

i agree, tsr. before we go to a sale, we study the catalog. we look at pedigree, performance data, and epd's. having criteria in each category, we can easily narrow down our choices. that way when we get to the sale we only have to look at what's been pre-marked in our catalogs. because we have raised registered polled herefords for many years, we are familiar with the pedigrees and use epd's as an added tool when buying them. on the other hand, when buying brangus bulls for our commercial cows, we are not quite as familiar with the pedigrees so we rely more on epd's. because we sell the brangus/hereford females for replacements we look closely at the mm epds. i may get some arguments on this one because i know some folks believe this epd is the least indicative and most variable of all. maybe it is, but when looking at bulls, it is one of the few indicators of daughters' milking ability. yes, you can look at his dam & granddam & such but often at sales this isn't an option. epd's shouldn't be used exclusively but as a tool with all the other options out there. why not use all the info you can to make the most informed buying decision possible.