YOU CAN’T MANAGE WHAT YOU DON’T MEASURE… BUT APPARENTLY YOU CAN MARKET IT!

WE HAVE been both bewildered and disappointed to see several Speckle Park studs referring to their animals’ Estimated Breeding Value (EBV) highlights in their marketing, but without any actual performance recording having even taken place – except perhaps submission of a birthweight.

We believe this to be deceiving at best, and really makes a mockery of the intent behind performance recording to genuinely identify trait leaders, so bull buyers can select for the traits they wish to breed towards, and have that actually eventuate in their progeny.

For example, we have recently seen a bull marketed on social media as being in the top 20% of the breed for Retail Beef Yield (RBY). On face value, it would appear he was a bull suitable to use over females to produce progeny that would yield higher percentages of saleable beef in a standard weight steer carcase. However, upon researching the animal on the Speckle Park Herdbook, it was discovered that the breeder had only ever submitted his birthweight to Breedplan – so, zero carcase traits had been analysed. Further, neither his sire nor dam had any traits analysed in the Breedplan system whatsoever. As a result, the accuracy for his RBY EBV was only 34%. So is the bull a trait leader for the RBY EBV, as promoted in his marketing? With an accuracy of 34%, our answer would be, ‘who knows?’

Protect yourself by purchasing seedstock from a stud that provides you with good quality data - don’t risk going down an unintended path with your genetic selections by using seedstock with poor quality, low accuracy data that is derived from genetic linkages alone and not actual measurements. Your herd and your breeding objectives deserve better.

Relying on genetic linkages alone in the formation of EBVs is fraught with danger - we all know that we can have full siblings in our household that are very different as individuals! It requires the submission of quality phenotype records from animals in large contemporary groups to maximise the ability of Breedplan to more accurately attribute EBVs to each animal.

As stud producers, we believe our role is to collect as much data as possible to give our clients a fighting chance of achieving their breeding objectives. Every bull in our sale has at least 10 traits analysed in the Breedplan system prior sale day. This ensures EBV accuracies up around the same levels achieved in the Angus breed, for bulls of the same age.

We have held a five-star Completeness of Performance rating since 2019, which means we keep our contemporary groups intact right through to the collection of 400-day weights, scrotal sizes and carcase data in November each year - all to ensure the maximum amount of data is submitted to Breedplan and EBV accuracies are maximised. We hate looking at known culls for months on end, and watching them eat our grass all this time (especially in the drought years) but we have done it and will continue to do it for the greater good.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure – and we pride ourselves on the quality of our data. Measured performance with a strictly commercial focus. We will absolutely market the strengths of our selected sale cattle, however it is only after we have put in the hard yards and measured them from birth, culled appropriately after November each year, and invited independent assessments to ensure that only our best are offered for sale.

TERMS & CONDITIONS:

1) The semen is for stud or commercial use. 2) Semen is for within-herd use only – not for resale.

3) Any embryos produced using this semen are for within-herd use only.

4) A Speckle Park International AI Sire Permit is in place for this sire. 5) Offer ends 5pm AEDT, 18/03/2023.