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Why You Cannot Push One Number Without Moving Another
Say you decide growth is what you want. Bigger calves, more pounds to sell. So you go through the sale book and buy the highest yearling-weight bulls you can find, year after year, and you…
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Where These Numbers Live
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…
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Understanding Angus Genetic Selection: How the Numbers Are Built and How to Read Them
Most people who buy a registered Angus bull look at a row of EPDs and a handful of dollar figures and make a decision. Fewer understand what those numbers actually are, how they are produced,…
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The Bull That Looked Great on Paper
You have seen it happen, maybe to you. A young bull comes up for sale with a set of numbers that stop you cold. His growth figures sit near the top of the breed. His…
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The Coffee-Counter Complaints About EPDs, Answered
Stand at the sale barn coffee counter long enough and you will hear every complaint there is about EPDs. Some are sharp and worth listening to. Some are a misunderstanding wearing work boots. The honest…
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Every Number on the Bull Page
You are leaning on the fence with a sale book open, staring at a wall of columns: CED, BW, WW, Marb, $M. You know some of them. The rest just dare you to guess. This…
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What Counts as a Good Number
You are standing at the sale barn counter with a bull’s page in your hand. His weaning weight EPD reads +80. Somebody asks you if that is any good, and you realize you have no…
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What an EPD Is, in Plain English
You already do the thing an EPD does. You just do it with two animals at a time. Stand two bulls side by side and you can guess which one throws the heavier calves. You…
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EPDs, Plain and Simple
This is a five-part series for a working cattleman who wants to read the numbers on a bull’s page and know what they mean, not just glance at them and hope. No schooling in math…
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The page of numbers nobody taught you to read
You are standing at a sale. The catalog is open, and every bull has a row of numbers after his name. Nobody ever sat you down and taught you to read them. So you do…
