IBBA Connection Busy Times for Brangus T by Tommy PERKINS, Ph.D., PAS IBBA Executive Vice President he demand for good Brangus genetics continues to be quite strong as sale averages have been good all around the country. Kyle, Rosanne and/or myself have attended every sale this year and we are always excited to see the IBBA members and commercial cattlemen who attend these same events. It is always interesting to hear the successes and struggles you share with us along the way. Thank you to all of the members who signed up for various committees for the upcoming year. Committee participation is a vital component to the growth and development of an organization. Informed, knowledgeable and engaged committee members are able to “flesh-out” the threats and opportunities of issues before they are presented for review by the board of directors. Strong committee leadership will be a key to the success of each committee. Therefore, I congratulate each of the appointed committee chairs and wish them success in the upcoming year as they guide their committee members through this very important process. Membership participation is the strength of any good organization so plan on attending an upcoming Brangus Field Day in your area. The Texas Brangus Breeders Association will be hosting a two-day event at Cavender Ranches in Jacksonville, Texas on June 3-4, 2016. The Southeast Brangus Breeders Association Field Day, hosted by The Oaks Ranch, will be held August 12-13, 2016 in Newnan, Georgia. Look for additional details in this journal. The newly seated IBBA Board has already had two conference calls this year and will be planning their first in-person meeting during the second week of June. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Convention in Manhattan, Kansas. Another face-to-face meeting will occur during the IBBA Fall Conference to be held later this year. Make sure you communicate important issues with the director from your area if it is needing to be addressed with board action. We have now completed our first full year of calculating Genomic Enhanced EPDs (GE-EPDs) for animals with DNA samples submitted with 30K or higher chip densities. This has really improved the accuracy value on every EPD trait for the young, unproven and DNA tested animals. The availability of GE-EPDs on yearling animals has given the commercial bull buyer a selection advantage because of the increase in reliability of the EPDs. I encourage everyone to perform a 30K or i50K SNP profile on all of your young cattle as the commercial bull buyer expects to see yearling cattle with GE-EPDs and many times parentage before they will buy new herd sires. This, in general, will pay added dividends for breeders with fewer animals than it will for breeders with large contemporary groups. As a friendly reminder, please remember that ALL AI sires and ET donor dams must be tested for genetic conditions they are known to be genetic potential carriers for (Developmental Duplication, Contractural Arthrogryposis, etc.) before registry of their calves can be accomplished in the future. If an AI sire or ET donor dam has notation of a DDPC, CAPC, AMPC, etc. then they will need to be tested for the condition or PFLI KI8MF =LIK?LJ 9I<<;F =LIK?LJ fi ZXcc /''$JC<LJ 9I<<;-:3A? .>1101>? -??: I-:3A? Gclj# fli _fk\cj Xi\ Zfem\e`\ekcp cfZXk\[ .>1101>? Zcfj\ kf Xi\X i\jkXliXekj# j_fggè^ Xe[ -??: \ek\ikXèd\ek m\el\j% IcfYXc JXc\j DXeX^\i Gclj# fli _fk\cj Xi\ Zfem\e`\ekcp cfZXk\[ G_fe\1 0.)$,',$+,'. Zcfj\ kf Xi\X i\jkXliXekj# j_fggè^ Xe[ BXk_\iè\%8cc\e7CXhlèkX%Zfd ]i\\ _`^_$jg\\[ @ek\ie\k Xe[ Zfd]p Y\[j% \ek\ikXèd\ek m\el\j% C8 HL@EK8 `j i\^`jk\i\[ è k_\ L%J% GXk\ek Xe[ KiX[\dXib F]ÓZ\% )''0 CH DXeX^\d\ek# C%C%:% 10 | May 2016 Brangus Journal =fi XZZflek Xjj`jkXeZ\# ZfekXZk1 9ffb efn Xk CH%Zfd# gifdfk`fe Zf[\ 9I8E>LJ fi ZXcc /''$JC<