A simple approach to bull buying

When it's time to buy your next bull, good luck with making sense of the thousands of numbers you have to wade through in a sales catalog.

One bull may be very good for calving ease EPD (expected progeny difference) but fail badly on yearling weights. Another may be at the top on carcass grid value but below average in EPD for cow stayability.

Are all of those numbers really important to you anyway? Which one makes you the most money?

Jared Decker, a beef genetics specialist at the University of Missouri, has some help. Rather than piece together your own system to balance a dozen traits, boil it down to one number and put it in real dollar-per-calf terms.

It's called an economic selection index. "It's an EPD for a single trait: profit," Decker says. "It's a combination of each trait weighted by its economic importance. It gives multitrait selection in a simple formula that is profit-motivated."

Selection indexes come in several types, he explains. Some are terminal indexes, in which no replacement females will be kept and there's no need to include such traits as milk or cow stayability. For most cattle producers, Decker favors a more all-purpose index that includes important traits from conception to slaughter.

Many of the breed associations offer their own versions of economic selection indexes and explain them on their websites. If a bull is registered, you can often search for his index by registration number.

The American Angus Association, for instance, offers a system called Angus $Value Index. Angus bulls are indexed by such criteria as weaned calf value ($W), feedlot value ($F), or maternal weaned calf value ($M).

The latter, a multipurpose index, combines such traits as milk, heifer pregnancy rates, docility, and foot scores. When used over time to make bull selections, it could build a more efficient cowherd.

The Hereford breed offers several indexes, including the Certified Hereford Beef Index (CHB$) and an all-purpose index called Baldy Maternal Index (BMI$).

"You need to know your own breeding objectives," Decker says. "Is it maternal traits or carcass traits? Find an index that works for you and use it. They are the best answer you have today for making genetic progress in your beef herds."

The $15 Per-Calf Difference

On its website, American Angus says selection indexes only have meaning when used in comparing the relative merit or ranking of two individuals. If bull A has a weaned calf value index of +$50, bull B has a value of +$35, and all breeding and environmental conditions are equal, on average, you could expect bull A's progeny to have a +$15 per head advantage in preweaning value over bull B.

Q&A: Jared Decker

SF: Is there an economic selection index for feed efficiency?

JD: Yes, and it's really a good example of how an index can work. You've got feed intake on one side and performance on the other. Which is more important? An index can put the right value to each.

SF: I worry that with a profit-ability index, I could put the focus on the wrong things. I want to turn rough or poor forage into profits. Can an index do that?

JD: In the old days, you made decisions based on opinions and sometimes you chased fads. Now, you use data to keep from going the fad route. In your case, I think an index that focuses on cow stayability or cow sustained fertility will give appropriate weight to what you want to do. It will keep you on the right path.