Reproduction, Growth, Carcass Traits -- Can We Have It All? Part 1

by Mark Gardiner, Gardiner Angus Ranch, Ashland, Kansas

This is a very easy question to answer: yes...we can have it all!

Beef cattle production is easier today than any time in history. Reproduction has always been, and will always be, the number one performance trait. Cattle must be given a job description. Job one is to reproduce. Cattle that do not reproduce must be eliminated. Cattle that do reproduce should then be selected for the economically-important traits.

In the past the only selection pressure that could be applied was reproduction. We did not have the information to change growth or carcass traits. Prior to the first American Angus Association Sire Evaluation Report published in the fall of 1980, we either made Angus cattle shorter or taller, but we did nothing to make a more efficient beef animal. Prior to the Sire Summary, we did nothing to change the genetics for growth, let alone produce a better beef product for consumers. Today, we can use genetic selection to create Angus cattle that we thought were impossible 20 years ago. The American Angus Association has built a database that is the best in the world. I find it astonishing that even today there are Angus breeders who doubt the validity of this information. It is even more amazing that some Angus breeders still do not use this information. I have heard it said that with all of the EPDs we have today, that it is too complicated to sort it all out. The reality is if breeders will look at EPD's as $$$$, the sky is the limit on the opportunities that they represent.

When I was learning to use EPDs and database selection systems in the early 1980's, two of my mentors, Roy Wallace and John Crouch, used to say you cannot have low birth weight, high growth, moderate-framed cattle because these are all antagonistic traits.What they meant by antagonistic traits was that in general, higher growth cattle tend to have larger birth weights and a larger mature size because of the positive correlation among growth traits. However, when cattle that defied these correlations were identified using the Angus database, it became possible to select them and to change the population. Now we can expand our use of those outlier bulls.

A great way to demonstrate the power of the Sire Summary is to sort bulls using the Angus Association's database search on the Internet (http://www.angus.org/sireeval/index.html). There are 2738 sires in the Fall 2000 Sire Evaluation Report. There are 13 traits listed in the sire summary, and another 5 traits listed in the American Angus Association's preliminary Carcass Evaluation Ultrasound Report. I want to select a sire that is: * in the bottom three percent of the breed for birth weight;

If you add up all of the bull calves born during the same time period that the 2738 bulls in the Sire Summary were selected, you would find that those bulls were selected from more than 2.5 million bulls. So how many bulls out of the 2.5 million will fit my criteria above?
There is ONE. The bull is Rito 616. I have to admit that I was not smart enough to find him until he appeared in the Sire Summary. I found this bull because of our ability to measure, describe and identify Angus cattle. The secret in the Angus business is that we have the most powerful, accurate information source in the world: the Sire Evaluation Report. You have this information at your fingertips, free of charge. USE IT!

Having the best database in the world doesn't mean there aren't decisions to make when using EPDs. Every breeder has to decide which traits are most important to him and his customers. In my mind, it comes down to deciding the relative importance of selection for growth, carcass traits and reproductive efficiency.

Growth
Producers are paid for pounds. Gardiner Angus Ranch tries to breed for as many pounds as possible, provided we can produce those pounds in the correct package. To explain how we arrived at this breeding goal, I have to share a bit of our history with you.

Henry Gardiner started breeding Register Angus cattle in 1947. For 33 years, Dad tried hard to make genetic change. In 1964 he began using an intensive artificial insemination (AI) program of theoretically the best bulls of the Angus breed. He was selecting bulls that looked good, were bull test winners, or that were purple ribbon winners. He became very frustrated because no matter how hard he tried to make genetic progress, it did not work!
The average weaning weights of our steer calves from 1964 to 1973 were 523 pounds.

From 1974 to 1979, we creep fed our steers and also weaned them at early dates. Then in 1980, we returned to a comparable management of our steer calves, and those calves still weighed 526 pounds. There had to be a better way. That better way was to establish the goals for our breeding program and to have the tools needed to reach those goals.
In the fall of 1980, Dad got the Angus Field Data Report (Sire Summary). This allowed Angus breeders to make sire selection based on genetic merit for selected traits.

In December 1980, we began relying heavily on EPDs to select our sires. Most of the bulls we use we have never seen. However, we select only progeny-proven sires that have sired hundreds, if not thousands, of calves. We have a total AI program. We currently breed over 1600 females and make about 2000 embryo transfers every year. Every animal on Gardiner Angus Ranch is the result of AI or ET.

continued in Part 2...