NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State
University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
February 19, 1998
[Editors: This is the second in a series of articles on bull buying.]
There's no owner's guide with bulls—no list of capacities, capabilities, power or shortcomings.
But a list of EPD ratings comes close, notes Kris Ringwall, a beef specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service at NDSU's Dickinson Research Extension Center. EPDs, or expected progeny differences, are numbers that indicate the relative performance of a bull's offspring. For years, EPDs have been a guide for calving ease, birthweight, growth, weaning weight and a host of other production characteristics. Now EPDs are available for carcass characteristics too, and include information on carcass weight, leanness and meat quality.
"As the beef industry is changing, those EPDs are getting more and more use," Ringwall says.
For cattle producers to effectively use EPDs, they need to thoroughly know their existing herds and establish benchmarks for existing cows and bulls. "If most of your calves come off the cow at 500 pounds, that's your benchmark. If you want to boost weaning weight, you can go out looking for bulls with EPDs for higher weaning weights," he explains.
"You need to know where you're at and set goals for your herd. Once you've done that, you can use EPDs to select bulls that will get you to your goals," he says. And with more EPDs available for carcass traits, producers can better target their breeding programs toward high-quality consumer products. As beef markets begin to offer value-based premiums and discounts, EPDs for carcass traits will continue to grow in importance, Ringwall predicts.
Producers need to remember that EPDs come as a package, and they need to consider the entire group when selecting a new bull, Ringwall says. A bull with an EPD for high birthweight may also have an EPD for difficult calving and a bull with an EPD for rapid growth may have also have one for low carcass quality.
"Producers need to consider all the EPDs. In general, staying in the middle of the road on both production and carcass traits is what's going to make them the most money," he says.
Ringwall also notes that most of the traits are influenced in varying degrees by management. "That means the best combination of EPDs available can't overcome problems in nutrition, health maintenance or other management areas."
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Source: Kris Ringwall (701) 227-2427
Editor: Tom Jirik (701) 231-9629