The Bottom Line

By B.J. Eick

The bottom line drives all decision making in the commercial cattle industry. The livelihood of commercial cattlemen depends on numbers. Every input and every return results in a harem of pluses and minuses summing to a profit or loss for the commercial operation. With his fate resting on one number, it ’s easy to see why the commercial cattleman would place so much selection emphasis on performance numbers. Performance data and EPDs provide tangible, concrete evidence of the value of a decision for commercial cattlemen.

Developing a performance based operation
Data collection is the foundation for providing performance information. For generations, cattlemen have recorded simple measurements with weights, scales and tape measures. With technology evolving every day, more performance measurements are recorded than ever before. Ultrasound technology has allowed collection of reproductive and carcass information without harvesting the animal. Computers allow feedlots to better track gains and feed conversions, in some instances to an individual level, then trace this information back to the source. They are now able to tell which cattle are paying the bills and which ones are costing them dollars all at the touch of a button. Commercial cattlemen are paying extremely close attention to every number they can collect. When making selection decisions, they demand proven performance. In order for purebred breeders to market seedstock to cow calf operators or calves to stockers and feedlots they must have documented performance history. Data collection and reporting have become vital tools for any operation where the marketing plan includes selling cattle to commercial operations.

In general, commercial producers are working with two types of numbers; actual performance data and performance predictors. A feedlot operation that is looking to purchase calves to finish from your ranch would be interested to see actual performance data such as the cutouts from the last loads you sent, growth numbers, feed efficiency, etc. A commercial man buying a bull from your seedstock operation would be interested in both the actual performance numbers for the individual and it ’s predictors or EPDs. They would place specific selection emphasis on the predictors of economic value to their operation. For example, if he is a cow/calf operator who sells all of his calves at weaning, the most economically important traits for his operation would be birthweight and weaning weight. He may additionally be concerned with factors such as coat color and any other items holding influence on the marketability of his calves. With this in mind, it ’s easy to see the selection emphasis each buyer places on different traits depends directly on his production scenerio.

Establishing Predictors
Once data sets have been collected, predictors can be created by applying performance data to the genetic information we have compiled through recording pedigrees. Once we have interwoven the genetic information with the data collected, we can begin to predict how an animals progeny will perform.

Unfortunately, without continued data collection, the accuracy of our predictions is relatively low. We must continue to collect and record data on a given animals progeny in order to adjust our predicted value to better match the actual performance of the sire group. The greater the number of progeny with data collected and recorded, the more accurately we can predict how the given sire or dam ’s progeny will perform. It takes an immense volume of data collected over time to establish predictors with high accuracies, thereby proving an animals siring ability.

Because of low accuracies, predictors can sometimes be deceiving, for both the good and the bad. Theoretically, a bull could have a high birth number with a low accuracy as a calf and later prove himself to be a calving ease sire. This is why having a volume of accurate data is important to establishing EPDs. Predictors with greater accuracies diminish the probability of animals who don ’t sire to their numbers.

Just as there are vast numbers of performance measurements able to be taken by the producer, there are many predictors established by breed associations in order to make selection decisions easier for producers. Figure 1 is a list of EPDs reported by the American Maine- Anjou Association. Figure 2 lists additional predictors and Figure 3 lists the indexes reported by various other breeds.

While this listing is not a complete report of all EPDs and indexes, it is not surprising that breeds which supply more cattle to the commercial industry also record more performance data, compute more indexes and have developed more EPDs than other breeds. The commercial industry has demanded breeders to supply data to aid in their selection decisions. Some breeds have even established EPDs for traits where their breed has been faulted, such as docility, calving ease or mature size. This has aided in selecting cattle within their breed which better fit traits desired by commercial cattlemen.

A number of Maine-Anjou breeders are able to capture a large commercial audience, capitalizing on the breeds versitle commercial applications by documenting the performance ability of the cattle in their herd.

A plan for performance
First consider this. Do you really know what your cattle are good at? Until you have documented the performance of your cattle, there is no way to be sure. How do you know, and more importantly, how do you prove to your potential customers, that your cattle grow fast? How do they know your cattle have great feed conversions? How do they know your cattle have great IMF scores or have great carcass cutability? Do you have a documented record of prior proven performance for your buyers to evaluate? If you don’t, then you need one.

Commercial cattlemen are seeking genetics that will have a positive effect on their bottom line. Collecting performance data can be a difficult and time consuming task. Breeders must determine what value they will receive from additional performance information. If you seek to add value to your product, documenting performance can be an extremely helpful tool for helping you discover your operations marketing niche. Document performance, evaluate what your cattle do best, breed with commitment, market with direction, add value to your product and reap the benefits of performance information. That ’s the bottom line.