GW REGISTRY TIPS ‘N TRICKS
AGA’s Progeny Calculator By Taylor Buckley
S
eedstock producers are always striving to produce top of the line genetics. The American Gelbvieh Association (AGA) Online Registry Service offers tools to help members make well-informed mating decisions to reach their goals. As breeders get ready to think about the upcoming breeding season, we want to share how to use the progeny calculator tool in the registry. This tool was built to see percentile rank estimates for all AGA published expected progeny differences (EPDs). This will help give an idea of which matings could produce calves in the top 25% of the breed, the bottom 25% of the breed and the middle 50% of the breed for each trait. To use this tool, log into your AGA Online Registry Service account. Under the red ‘My Account’ tab drop down to the red ‘Tools’ tab. Next in the menu is the red ‘Prog Calc’ tab. This tab gives the member two options, ‘Bull’ or ‘Female’, to separate out which animals the member wants to compare. For example, if thinking about buying a new herd bull this sale season or using a new AI sire, go to the ‘Bull’ option and see how he matches up to each of the operation’s cows. If thinking about buying a new donor and flushing her to something in the account’s quick sire list, select the ‘Female’ option to see how she compares to the bulls in your semen tank. Both options provide the opportunity to enter in two separate animals, two bulls or two females. For this example, we are going to focus on using a new sire on our herd (below). After going into the ‘Bull’ tab, it brings up the opportunity to enter the bulls’ registration numbers in the top corners of the page, either from the “View List” option, or place one registration number where it says ‘Bull Registration #1’ and the other registration number
across the page in the same spot for ‘Bull Registration #2’. As a reminder, use the full AMGV registration number. Click the button where it says “Retrieve this Bull’s information” on each bull. The bulls EPDs will show up. The next step is to select cows. Cows are listed in a chart below. Select the cows by clicking the box where it says “Calculate this cow” (left). The next step is to get that data! There is a button that says “Calculate Progeny EPDs based on these bulls.” The data will then appear line by line along with a chart to provide a better visual. Using the key at the top can be helpful to better understand the data. Users can also download the results into a spreadsheet or a PDF, which allows the member to save the work on the current matings and move on to the next.
10 | APRIL 2020
