OFFICIAL PUBLICATION of the HEARTLAND LIMOUSIN ASSOCIATION • MAY/JUNE 2016 Sale Season
NEWS Back In Time..........................33, 42 Covering Ground..........................4 Fullblood Limousin Alliance.....26 Heartland Calendar.......................3 Heartland Highlights............28, 29 Heartland Regional Show Entry......39 Junior Beat.................................. 8, 9 On The Road Again................... 6, 7 Recipe of the Month......................6 Sale Reports............................ 30-46
STATE NEWS Iowa News.............................. 10-13 Kansas News.................................14 Minnesota News....................14, 16 Missouri News.............................18 Nebraska News...................... 19-21 South Dakota News.....................22 Wisconsin News....................24, 25
ADVERTISERS Barnaud Limousin.......................18 Bosch Farms.................................13 Double A Land & Cattle.............21 Grassroots Genetics & Consulting............................26 GV Limousin...............................19 HLA Thank You..........................27 Leonard Limousin.........................7
Simplifying Sire Selection with Readily Available Data
S
ire selection does not need to be overwhelming or complex, according to Matt Spangler, Nebraska Extension Beef Genetics Specialist. Centuries of work by geneticists and statisticians have allowed for the development of tools that help producers make decisions relative to the next bull you purchase; do not ignore them. The key questions that every rancher needs to answer are: 1. W hat are my breeding/marketing goals?
2. What traits directly impact the profitability of my enterprise? 3. Are there environmental constraints that dictate the level of performance that is acceptable for a given trait in my enterprise? Once these three questions are answered, sire selection becomes much simpler. The answers to these questions inherently lead a producer to the traits that are economically relevant to their enterprise. We call these traits Economically Relevant Traits (ERT).
LIMI-Gene.....................................5 Mill Road Limousin....................37 Ochsner Limousin.......................10 Pinegar Limousin..................15, 17 Power Forward Sale.....................23 Symens Brothers............................2 Treftz Limousin..............................3
Wulf Cattle.............................. OBC
Volume 24 • Issue 3
Wieczorek Limousin...................11
Time-Dated Material
Vorthmann Limousin.................47
Heartland Limousin Association 23244 Gopher Drive East Bethel, MN 55005
Vaughn Limousin........................45
Fundamentally, these are traits directly associated with a revenue stream or a cost. All traits that are not ERTs are indicator traits, or a trait that is genetically correlated to an ERT but not an ERT itself. Classic examples of indicator traits include ultrasonic carcass measurements and birth weight. Ultrasonic carcass measurements are a non-destructive measure of traits such as intramuscular fat percentage (IMF). Producer do not receive premiums for IMF levels, rather premiums (and discounts) are applied to quality grades. Assuming that carcass maturity values are the same, actual carcass marbling is the driver of quality grade. Although IMF is genetically correlated to carcass marbling it is not the ERT. Birth weight is another great example of an indicator trait. Selection to decrease birth weight in an attempt to reduce the prevalence of dystocia is practiced by numerous commercial bull buyers. However, birth weight does not have a direct revenue source or cost associated with it. Continued on page 3