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Maine-Anjou Voice ::
Kyla
Nesheim / Jeana Sankey ::
204 Marshall Road :: PO Box
1100 :: Platte City MO 64079-1100
Phone - 816.858.9954 :: Fax - 816.858.9953 ::
E-mail:
voiceeditor@kc.rr.com |
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March/April 2007 - Feature
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When I first became a U.G.C. (Ultrasound
Guidelines Council) Ultrasound
Technician, I wanted to have a
company slogan or phrase that
exemplified what it meant to scan cattle. I
wanted it to be short, sweet
and right to the point. I thought about
it for a few weeks and really didn’t come up
with anything that worked.
Most of my ideas were somewhat corny
and really didn’t personify what I was looking
for. One day my wife and I were driving and
she came up with a simple catch phrase that
captured the entire ultrasound process
in three simple words. “Scanning Your Future.”
It was perfect and I’ve used it as my business
motto ever since.
For those of us who raise cattle, the
future is something we all plan for. We
breed for it, we cull for it and we come to
depend on it. Let’s face
it; what we do today in our herd has
implications for years to come. The decisions
we make must be well
thought out and fit with the goals of our
individual programs. With all these factors to
consider, it’s sometimes hard to make
heads or tails of which direction to go. The
daunting task of bull selection every year is
a frustrating process for many. The endless
hours of studying pedigrees
and crunching “numbers” is something we
all endure. And how about all the EPDs
we have to consider? How do those
fit in our program and how can they
help improve the overall quality and
marketability of our cattle?
The American Maine-Anjou Association (AMAA)
now has 10 different
EPDs that are considered management, breeding
and selection tools. Each one has its own
merit and when
consistently used in a program, changes can be
made in a relatively short period of time
to achieve many individual goals.
Whether you are trying to reduce birth
weights, increase yearling
weights or improve carcass attributes,
using EPDs can certainly assist you in
reaching those goals. Over
the past few years, more and more
purebred and commercial operations have been
paying attention to one particular set
of EPDs — that of the ultrasound or scan data.
Ultrasound measurements are indicators of the
grade and quality a beef animal
possesses. And just like selecting
bulls for low birth or females for udder
quality, ultrasound characteristics are
heritable traits that are passed down
from generation to generation. Thus the
demand on having and using the
scan data has gone from a select few,
to the mainstream of cattle production.
Since established in 1998, The
National C.U.P. Lab in Ames, Iowa has
processed over one million head of
ultrasounded cattle. According to Mark
Henry, Director of Operations at the C.U.P.
Lab, the amount of cattle
scanned and processed every year
continues to increase by 10-15%. In 2006
alone, Mark estimates that 15-
20% of the cattle scanned were from new
ranches that haven’t ultrasounded before.
Progressive cattlemen, including many
Maine-Anjou breeders, are now utilizing
ultrasound technology
for genetic evaluation and pedigree
EPDs. So what are the benefits of scanning
your cattle and how do you
go about getting it done? How can you
use the data to change the future composition
of your cattle? We’ll tackle those and few
more of the common questions I’m asked by
new and old breeders alike.
What are the traits you
ultrasound for?
There are four objectives we cover
when scanning cattle: %IMF or
intramuscular fat, rib fat and rump fat and
the total ribeye area or size.
1. %IMF — Not to be mistaken for
tenderness, the %IMF is directly related to
the overall juiciness and
tastiness of the beef. Having this data
allows you to make solid breeding decisions to
help improve the quality of beef you’re
trying to produce. Collected parallel to the
spine over the 12th
and 13th rib, your %IMF EPD is established
from this set of data. The heritability
estimates for this trait are
quite high at approximately 30-35%.
2. Rib Fat — Rib fat is a solid indictor
of the end or retail product of your
animal. The larger the fat cover is,
the lower the percent will be on the overall
grade. A percentage of this measurement
goes into your FAT EPD and the heritability of
this trait is slightly lower at 20-25%.
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