You know what an EPD is now. You can read a +25 next to a +15 and say which bull should throw the heavier calves. But there is a wall in front of you that nobody warned you about. You are standing at the fence with a bull you like, and the column where his numbers ought to be is blank. Knowing how to read a number does you no good until you know where to find one.
This piece is about that wall. Not what the numbers mean, but where they live and how you lay hands on them. There are three main places, and once you know them you will never be stuck at the rail again.
The Association’s animal search
The first place is the deepest, and it is free. The American Angus Association keeps a record on every registered Angus animal, and you can look that record up online at angus.org.
A registered animal has two things you can search by: a name and a registration number. The registration number is the one printed on its papers, unique to that animal, like a serial number. Type in either one and you can pull up the animal’s page. On that page sit its current EPDs, its $Values (dollar figures that roll several EPDs into one number for a way of making money), and the accuracy behind each one.
That is the whole set, in one spot, straight from the outfit that calculates it. No seller between you and the number. If a bull in a catalog catches your eye and you want to see his figures for yourself, or check that the ones printed in front of you match, this is where you go. Look him up by his registration number and read his page.
One honest note. Some of what the Association hosts sits behind a login for members. But the animal lookup, the part that shows you a registered animal’s EPDs and $Values, is open to anyone who wants to check a number. You do not have to take a catalog’s word for it.
The registration certificate
The second place is the paper itself.
Every registered Angus animal comes with a registration certificate. It is the document that proves the animal is recorded with the Association, and it carries that registration number we just talked about. Many certificates also print the animal’s EPDs right on them.
Here is the catch worth knowing. A number printed on paper is frozen the day it was printed. The animal’s real EPDs keep moving as more records come in, but the ink does not. So treat the certificate as a starting point and a way to get the registration number, then look that number up online to see where the figures stand today. The paper tells you who the animal is; the website tells you what he is worth right now.
The sale catalog
The third place is the one you will meet most often, because it is in your hands the day you buy.
Open a sale catalog and each animal gets its own lot, with a block of information: the pedigree, some notes, and a row of EPDs and $Values. That row is the seller putting the animal’s numbers in front of you so you can compare one lot to the next without leaving your seat.
A catalog row like that is only useful if you know which number is which, and a good catalog tells you. Somewhere in the book, usually up front or on the page, there is a legend: a short key that spells out what each column heading stands for. It names the traits, in the order the columns run, so you can tell the weaning weight figure from the milk figure from the marbling figure. Find that legend before you start reading lots. Without it you are looking at a grid of numbers with no labels.
The catalog is convenient, but remember it was printed weeks ahead of the sale. Same as the certificate, those numbers are a snapshot from printing day. If a lot matters to you, take its registration number off the page and check the animal’s current figures on angus.org before you raise your hand.
Once you have the number, judge it
Finding the number is half the job. The other half is knowing whether it is any good, and a raw EPD does not tell you that by itself. A +80 weaning weight means nothing until you know where +80 sits among the bulls selling today.
For that you read the percentile chart, which ranks a number against the rest of the breed. That is a separate job with its own two yardsticks, and it has its own piece: What Counts as a Good Number. Find the number here; judge it there.
The number is a dated snapshot
One habit will keep you honest through all three places. Every EPD you find is a snapshot with a date on it, not a permanent stamp on the animal.
The Association re-runs its national evaluation every week, folding in new weights, new calves, and new DNA, so an animal’s numbers can shift from one week to the next. That is the system working, not failing. It means the freshest number is the one you pull up online the day you are buying, and a figure printed in a catalog or on a certificate may already have moved. When it matters, check the live page.
You may also run across an EPD with a small “I” in front of it. That “I” stands for interim. It marks a young animal whose own records are not in the evaluation yet, so the number is mostly a guess off its parents, carried at very low accuracy (Association definitions). Seeing that “I” is your cue to read for accuracy, not just the size of the number.
Who keeps the record
Last, the part that makes all of this worth trusting. No breeder computes these numbers, not us and not anyone. They come out of the American Angus Association’s national evaluation, run across the whole breed every week, DNA folded in (national evaluation). That is why you can look a bull up yourself and get the same figures the seller sees. A breeder’s job, ours here at Deluisio Angus included, is to read those numbers well and pair them with what a number cannot show you. The record belongs to the whole breed, and it is open for you to check.
Related reading: What an EPD Is, in Plain English for what these numbers mean, and What Counts as a Good Number for judging one once you have it. Back to the reading guides.
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