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West Central Iowa | Agree with some of the other posters about my lack of faith in fancy catalogs and inflated EPDs. Not to mention breeders that manage cows in a way that commercial guys would find unprofitable (most likely too big, too fat, or too many groceries) because they can create an appealing appearance for potential buyers. Someone recently told me that the purebred cattle industry today is similar to the racehorse industry of the previous generation. Silly amounts of outside money are spent in unsustainable ways to pursue unprofitable results. While playing their game, they simultaneously convince many cattlemen that such a course is correct.
Also, for the sake of EPD chasing, keeping replacement females (or bulls) from heifers for multiple generations has created genetics with poorer longevity due to the lack of selection pressure. I am proud to tell customers that the bull they are looking at is from an 8 or 10 year old cow, unfortunately though that comes at the expense of touting "breed leading" EPDs due to the fact that the average 10 year old cow in any herd will seldom have the "sexy" EPDs of the average 3 year old herdmate.
It also amazes me how scared my buyers are of bulls with actual BWs in the 90s for use on cows, even on higher performance bulls. No one wants to have calving problems (understandable) but when I ask them how much their calves weigh, "Not over 85" is a common response. My follow up question is "So you weigh your calves?" Of course they do not, but they just know they aren't THAT big.
When selling bulls, people want to know actual BW and WW data which is fine, but I also want to share with them how they ratioed in those categories in their contemporary group. Because a WW of 650 at my place doesn't look as impressive as a WW of 700 somewhere else, but what if my bull ratioed 115 and the other breeder's bull ratioed 85. It's hard to convince guys that feeding breeding livestock like a pen of fat cattle to tout their performance is NOT beneficial to future reproduction or longevity. But as agriculture is an industry that pursues maximums, it is common to single trait select for high WW or YW, or low BW, and convenience traits like feet, udders, ability to carry body condition, or correct structure are forgotten about.
The number of "hard doing" seedstock, or ones that need significant additional feed resources that exist in the industry today is also staggering. Unfortunately though I know of plenty of stories of people who paid $XX,XXX for an female, and when they come up open, or need their feet trimmed every year, they don't get sold. They get a second chance by getting pushed back 6 months to the next breeding season, and get better care to make sure they get bred next time. Commercial guys will often cull that female, while some seedstock operations will keep and propogate those genetics because of how "valuable" and "good" they are.
Unfortunately, too many seedstock are produced and marketed in such a way that the pockets being lined are those of the breeder. I have seen too many commercial operations make decisions to impress their buddies at the coffee shop by how much they spent on a bull, or how heavy their calves were on sale day, or how big they were able to get their bred heifers, etc. without realizing how their decisions impacts herd function and long term profitability.
I have always believed the statement that carcass traits are half as important as growth, and growth is half as important as fertility. I wish more bull buyers would prioritize the cow side of the pedigree (age, udder, calving interval, etc.) and spend less time over a 10 lb weaning weight difference between bulls, but that is the world we are in. I'm a nobody in the bull sales world because I don't adopt the "bigger, better, faster at any cost" approach, but am not going to give up my belief that a good bull needs to come from a good cow, that meets my standards, and does her job correctly every year in my environment. EPDs are one of many tools we have to make decisions, but are not the saving grace to the cattle industry as some try to advertise. | |
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Feet
