I stopped by to check on my cattle this afternoon and found that my Huth heifer, purchased last fall as bred, had her calf over the past Easter weekend.  A beautiful, spunky, healthy, registerable Hereford heifer calf nursing on her mom when I first saw her.

It got me thinking about EPD's vs looks on cattle.  Last year I purchased three registered Hereford heifers.

Two registered bred heifers I purchased based on EPD's and WI breeder Jerry Huth's recommendation.  Neither was really very visually impressive the first time I saw them, but both have had their first calves unassisted and seemed to be great mothers. These two had Hereford CED (calving ease direct) EPD's of 2.8 and 5.9. Both calves were born unassisted and doing well on mama's milk alone.

The one registered heifer I purchased on my own based on very impressive looks and a bigger name pedigree at a show had a CED EPD of just 0.2. This one had a great deal of difficulty calving, ending up with a dead calf.

The bull sires of all three had good CED EPD's. The one difference was the impressive looking heifer had a not so impressive CED which unfortunately proved to be reflected in reality.

Now I realize that three heifers is not a statistically large sample. However if a heifer's main function is to produce a calf unassisted, I will be paying a lot more attention to the CED & other EPD's in the future and less attention to an impressive appearance at a show. jmho.

My conclusion from this and some other experiences is that EPD's, from reputable breeders, seem to be useful in predicting qualities that can not be visually seen looking at an animal but are very important, such as calving ease.

Jim at Dawn