By Livestock Welcomes You to Cedarlea Farms

Welcome to Cedarlea Farms Bull Sale with its new date and the location being at their farm. Over the past 30 some years they have participated in sales in a couple different locations, but with their new facility, they felt it was time to move it home. For the past 11 years they sold with their neighbour and friends at Windy Willows. With the sale on the farm, you will enjoy some great hospitality and the opportunity to easily see the dams of your next herdbull if you desire.

The Cedarlea prefix has become synonymous with quality. This program has focused on all the economically viable traits for many generations in the cowherd. Calving ease, performance, fertility and structural soundness. Because of this, we have seen many dedicated, repeat commercial customers who have bought numerous bulls year after year to breed not only their cows, but also their heifers. You don’t get this kind of loyalty if they didn’t like working with this family and the bulls didn’t work. Bulls have sold from one end of the country to the other in purebred and commercial operations.

There are many ½ and ¾ brothers with some great consistency for those who need multiple bulls and want to have that consistency in their calf crop. If you are looking for a homozygous polled bull, many of the bulls in the sale are DNA tested homozygous polled. The Ultrasound data is also in the catalogue if you want to look under the hide as well. Phenotypically and genotypically this is a great set of bulls.

If we can be of any assistance before the sale, or on sale day, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. We would be happy to help you find a bull that is right for your program.

Sincerely,

Helge & Candace By

Ultrasound Carcass Measurements

Ultrasound data is a low cost and highly effective method to obtain information on carcass merit of breeding stock. Ultrasound on young seedstock is highly related to carcass characteristics of their progeny. Ultrasound enables producers to know carcass traits such as marbling, rib eye area and backfat thickness. Data is accepted for development of Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs). In herd ranking of animals can be a valuable tool in selecting future breeding stock and replacement heifers. Carcass traits measured by ultrasound are moderately to highly heritable, therefore, improvements in herd genetics can be made in a relatively short period of time. With quality management, an elite herd can be developed and marketed to other sectors of the industry for top dollar.

Ultrasound data is a valuable genetic tool and selecting for carcass traits is important for making improvements. As always, it’s to be used in concert with all other selection tools and visual appraisal.

Ribeye Area (REA) – an area measurement of the loin or ribeye muscle reported in square inches and is a highly heritable trait.

BACK FAT/RIB FAT – a measurement of fat cover in inches. It is the main trait that affects percent lean meat yield.

Intramuscular Fat (%IMF) Marbling – a measurement of the amount of fat within the muscle (marbling) which also is highly heritable.

Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs)

Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) aren’t just for seedstock cattle producers. They comprise a useful tool that you should use every time you buy a bull for your commercial cow herd. EPDs allow for the comparison of animals within a breed for their genetic potential as parents for a given trait. EPDs have existed in the beef industry for decades and their use has produced intended genetic change in many traits. However, some producers are still reluctant to rely on EPDs when making selection decisions; presumably because of a general lack of understanding of how EPDs are derived and their interpretation.

EPDs are the expected differences in performance and carcass quality of an animal’s sons or daughters. Commercial cows do not have known EPDs, but that shouldn’t prevent producers from using EPDs effectively, after all sire selection affects half the genetics of your calves. Evaluating what your records tell you is needed to complement the maternal base.

Calving Ease Direct (CE) - is expressed as a difference in percentage of unassisted births in first calf heifers. A higher value indicates greater calving ease. It predicts the average difference in unassisted births with which a sire’s calves will be born when bred to first-calf heifers.

Birth Weight EPD (BW) - The expected difference in average birth weight (pounds) of progeny. Birth weight reflects prenatal growth.

Weaning Weight EPD (WW) - The expected difference in average weaning weight of calves. The evaluation reflects the genetic influence on pre-weaning growth rate.

Yearling Weight EPD (YW) - The expected difference in average yearling weight of progeny. The evaluation reflects genetic influence on both pre-weaning and post-weaning growth rate.

Maternal Milk EPD (M) - The genetic ability of a sire’s or dam’s daughters to express in pounds of weaning weight in her calves due to her maternal ability through mothering instinct and milk.

Total Maternal EPD (TM) - A value to predict the weaning weight performance of calves from an animal’s daughters due to genetics for growth and maternal ability.

Total Maternal is calculated by adding ½ the WW EPD to the Maternal Milk EPD.