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West Central Iowa | EPDs are only a VAGUE starting point for the criteria you are selecting for and unless a bull is used AI and has hundreds of progeny on record, the EPDs will have very low accuracy. I entered your bull information on the Hereford website and hit "show EPD Acc." Your accuracys are low like that of any other small herd just because of limited numbers and reporting from only one herd. I don't know if you report BW, WW, and YW or not, but in your management system that may actually be supressing your WW & YW EPDs. I would consider your environment to be lower input when compared to traditional commercial operations as they strive to grow out their stock.
For example, lets say there was a full sibling embryo bull at the neighbors across the road and he had cows with the exact same EPDs. You utilize rotational grazing during the summer, develop heifers on hay only and fatten some steers grazing cornstalks. You aren't pushing your replacement heifers, and even though the steers are getting both corn and forage, it isn't ground, mixed, or control fed like in a bunk situation. Now your neighbor also rotationally grazes, but has creep feed available starting in mid June. After weaning his replacement heifers get 6-8 lbs of grain per day and the steers are bunk fed a fairly hot TMR ration with the goal of maximum gain. If you both report WW and YW, the EPD gap between your neighbors bull and yours will widen because the heavier weights from his calves that are being reported make it look like his genetics are superior because his calves at weaning & yearling weigh more. Since most associations don't adjust very well (or at all) for different feeding schemes, those operations that push their calves really hard with high grain diets are the "winners" in the EPD world because there cattle are typically assigned higher EPDs for growth when much of that growth is directly attributed to additional feed.
I believe it is VERY important for producers to buy seedstock from operations that are very similar to theirs from a management standpoint. If I buy bulls from a January calving herd that creep feeds, early weans, and rotationally grazes in the sandhills of Nebraska, I can't take that bull and put him on Missouri fescue, with no creep feed, weaning calves at 10 months old from a 320 acres timber pasture and expect similar levels of performance from his offspring. It doesn't mean his calves will be terrible, but that was not the environment of the herd in which he came from. You will likely never find a herd with identical management, but finding one that is similar will most likely provide benefits to your herd.
Edited by RCD 11/22/2011 09:40
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Bull EPD Question
