SCOTT AND PAULA HAMILTON HAMILTON FARMS – HITCHCOCK, SD “We grid market close to 800 home-raised steers every year. For the last 3 years, those steers averaged 17% Prime and 49% CAB with a 925# carcass weight and 70% YG 3 or bet- ter. We can get that kind of grade without sacrificing carcass weight or too many YG 4s and 5s because of the bulls we buy and managing cattle to their optimal end point.”
Profitable Genetic Selection using API and TI There’s a lot riding on bull selection, as it not only affects the value of your calf crop that you will market for the next 4-6 years, but if you’re keeping replacements that can turn in to as much as 10-15 years! So how do you make the most profitable decisions today , based on what the industry will be like in 5, 10, or 15 years? Economic indexes are easily the most efficient and effective way to select for future profitability. They are the ONLY genetic selection method that allows you to factor in the cost of selecting for traits, as well as the benefit. For example, what’s another 25 lbs of Weaning Weight worth? Well, that’s pretty easy as there’s plenty of market information to determine the benefit of added payweight. But that 25 lbs of Weaning Weight isn’t free, unfortunately. It’s more than likely going to require more feed intake or milk production, but maybe it’s also related to more birth weight and potential calving problems. Or maybe it’s related to more mature cow size with higher maintenance costs because she still needs groceries year-round, whether she’s raising a calf or not. In a nutshell, that’s what indexes do. They take all of the economically-relevant traits (ERTs) and calculate their value based on all the costs and benefits associated with those traits. So, which indexes should you use? Luckily, that answer is pretty simple. If you’re keeping replacement females, the All-Purpose Index (API) is the best choice. However, if you market 100% of your calf crop every year, the Ter- minal Index (TI) puts absolutely no weight on any maternal traits and it will allow you to maximize the market value of your calf crop at every end point, whether that’s as a weaned calf, yearling, or selling fat cattle on a value-based marketing grid. Lastly, it’s important to have a reference for how these indexes are tabulated. Indexes are displayed in dollars per cow exposed. So, if a bull breeds 30 cows a year For an average of 4 years that’s 120 total cows exposed If Bull A is +100 for API and Bull B is +150 for API, over their lifetime, Bull B will generate $6,000 (120 cows exposed x $50 difference in API) more Net Profit than Bull A. 93 / 4% TI 150 / 15% API A percentile ranking is provided to show how a bull compares to other bulls in the breed.
FARLEE RANCH DUPREE, SD
“We want our cows to work for us, not the other way around. We’ve been buying Eagle Pass bulls for over 20 years, starting with my Dad, and now I’m buying bulls with my two boys and my son-in-law. We’re weaning more pounds per cow today than we ever have before. Cows calve early in the season, stay in the herd longer, and raise a big calf that sells at the top of the market every year. That’s what it takes to keep this ranch going for the next generation of upcoming ranchers.”
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ANNUAL SPRING BULL SALE
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