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Bull Buying Tips
ELDON COLE
MT. VERNON, MO.
A cattleman asked recently why bull sale catalogs have accuracy values of only 0.05. Different breed associations have varied ways of expressing low accuracies of expected progeny difference (EPD). Low accuracies may result from incomplete data from sire and dam, contemporary grouping, embryo calves and numerous other reasons.
You need to ask questions if you are interested in an animal with an unusually low accuracy. Low values don’t mean they’re inferior genetically, it just means their offspring could show actual variations that are more extreme, one way or the other, over an animal with a 0.30, 0.40 or higher accuracy.
Accuracies increase as more is known about the animal’s true genetic profile. This information comes from sire’s and dam’s with high accuracies, individual animal performance and the most recent method is genomic or DNA testing. The latter technology is getting more economical with some tests under $30. Not only is it economical, it’s becoming more accurate and may cause the animal’s accuracy to equal what actual progeny values from eight to twenty progeny would reveal. Genomic testing can be done on newborns.
Buyers and sellers of Show-Me-Select heifers need to remember that after February 1, 2019 bulls purchased must have genomic-enhanced EPDs. Previously purchased bulls will be accepted in the program until February 1, 2020 at which time all natural service bulls must have genomic-enhanced EPDs. ∆
ELDON COLE: Extension Livestock Specialist, University of Missouri
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