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South Dakota | I always used to pelvic measure until I read a bunch of research on the practice. Large pelvices have a high degree of correlation with large cows. If you’ve got the frame size in a cow that you’re targeting, a larger than average pelvic measurement is very lowly heritable. So if you’re targeting a standard frame size with standard pelvic radius, then pelvic measurements make sense, however that’s not how it works, anything bigger than the minimum gets retained. By default the biggest cows will meet that evaluation criteria and your cow size will gradually get bigger. After I realized this, I started paying attention to what heifers met the cutoff and sure enough, I was selecting for larger cows.
With that said, I’ve really started paying attention to the bulls I’m using and the breeds in my cows. I want less genetic variation. More genetic variation throws those unforeseen train wrecks. I want to be more certain of what I’m dealing with and target a standard. I culled hard last year, got rid of 30 cows that were not uniform to my desired cows size, breed, attitude, or other normal criteria. I’m not there yet, but with that said, I haven’t pulled a calf since I quit pelvic measurements and started focusing on genetics in stead. | |
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Pelvic measuring heifers?
