AGE-ADVANTAGED BULLS In my original quest to get out of farming I convinced my father Ron that if we calved a group of cows in May-June, we could offer age-advantaged bulls for those customers that wanted them. One of the major reasons we did this was because every year or two we would have a natural service sire that didn’t do his job resulting in open or late cows.We didn’t want to get rid of these cows but calving in April was tough because of the mud.We decided to breed them to start in May and have been calving cows at this time since 2002.This season syncs with our grazing cycle and augments our current Spring calving system.We have also found that producers in many areas of the country like these age-advantaged bulls for their operations. Because of that, we have added ET calves to the group to increase the volume and quality. It is a natural impulse for us to throw up our hands in frustration when challenged to make sense of waves of new information. Many say, “I’m going to pick the cattle that look the part to me and to hell with all the numbers!” Besides, it seems easy for a lot of people in our business to believe the numbers are a crock - a contrivance of an ‘in group’ to manipulate the process to their advantage. Our view is that the EPDs have been invaluable and are essential to profitable cattle selection. The Neogen products produce data that verifies parentage and predicts the breeding value of an individual animal in different traits. International Genetic Solution (IGS) then processes that genomic data and puts it into a usable format by updating and reporting genomically-enhanced EPDs (GE-EPDs) weekly. The value of the genomic information is in improving the accuracy of the EPDs.The improved accuracy, according to the statisticians, can be expressed in the number of progeny records that would be required to produce equally valid phenotypically derived EPD values. GGP and that genomic data contributes an equivalent amount of information that would be derived from 21 offspring of a given bull. To sum up, let us revisit the data versus information idea. Investigation of the genome and accumulation of data to predict outcomes will continue across the entire spectrum of biology. No one can stop it. There is nothing fundamentally wrong or threatening with that process. At the same time, we believe that the interpretation of such data in our business is less than ideal, its impact sometimes exaggerated. In other words, the translation of data to usable information, actionable intelligence, is a work in progress.We believe that process will evolve and improve, particularly as more data accumulates. Nothing in this world is perfect, including the tools we have to predict outcomes in the vast, magnificent world of biology. But EPDs are still, and will remain, the selection tools to use in choosing bulls to buy.They account for all sources of information on the individual, including pedigree, with collateral relatives’ performance, individual performance, and genomic testing.They are the best tools we have and have most definitely worked for us.
Bieber Fever Fall Female and Bull Sale 48
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