Choosing A Herd Sire

I’m KayDee Gilkey and welcome to Open Range. Here’s Greg with today’s report.

Thanks KayDee. If you are building a herd it is important to find the right bull for your program. Ryan Raymond with Rollin’s Rock Genetic Partners talks about things to look for.

RAYMOND: Size, shape, quality, disposition, the EPD profile that you are looking for. A bull that would fit to your specific program.

And that can vary widely.

RAYMOND: Whether that be a dry condition where you would want low milk EPD’s and a smaller sized frame cow versus an irrigated pasture program where you don’t have to worry about milk EPD’s and might want a larger frame cow.

An EPD is defines as expected progeny differences or in other words how that animal will be as a parent. Rollin’ Rock Genetic Partners has their sale coming up on March 14th in Hermiston and he says it is important to pick a sire that is right for your program.

RAYMOND: Every bull is a little bit different. Every bull’s got a different EPD profile and every bull’s got a different size and shape and you need to pick the bulls that best fit your program. You need to look at appearance. To me the appearance on those bulls and the cattle that you have in your program - you’re not going to want to drive around in your cow herd and look at a bunch of cows that you don’t like the look of.

I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.

Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m KayDee Gilkey.