Page 19 - MWC 10-27-2022s

The Midwest Cattleman · October 27, 2022 · P19
values, creating value all tored into $BMI for the steer $British Maternal
the way through. Bull 2 is mates.
unique that his high CED is One important takeaway
a bonus to him (CED factors from this exercise is the mak-
in because we must have live ing selections based solely on
calves to get them to grow a selection index can be just
in the feed yard). Growth is as detrimental as making
good on that bull, and carcass selections based on a single
is acceptable. The growth EPD. You may love Bull A’s
data on Bull 3 are his selling $BMI, but if your customers $Feedlot
point, adding pounds (and have any market for selling or
dollars) to a carcass that may retaining feeder steers, he’s
not necessarily excel for qual- not a good option for fitting
ity on the grid. For cattle to that niche. It’s still necessary
rank highly in the $Feedlot to study the component traits
metric, higher growth EPDs of an index to make sure the
are important. Being elite bull you’re looking at is fine-
for growth and carcass isn’t tuned to meet your breeding
necessary, but if your bull is goals.
weaker in one area, he better While it’s easy to get lost
be stronger in the other to be on the trip to breeding better
a top end $F bull. Shorthorns, indexes can be
Our final chart (on the a good guiding post for you,
next page) brings all six bulls if you take into account the
used in this article together component pieces involved to
to compare their $BMI and make sure you stay follow-
$F values. You’ll notice that ing the little blue line on the
the high $BMI bulls don’t “Google Maps” in your oper-
all translate to high $F cat- ation.
tle, while the high $F cattle
look like stronger $BMI cat-
tle as well. That’s likely due
to the growth component fac-