The American Gelbvieh Association (AGA) is taking the lead in providing the commercial industry with common sense but also powerful selection tools. Cattle breeders have continued to bombard cow/calf producers with EPDs that evaluate not only myriad of traits ranging from calving ease to yearling performance to stayability to a whole host of carcass traits. The result is that in our effort to provide cow/calf producers with all of these EPDs, we have many times overwhelmed commercial breeders with too much data.

The dairy industry in the United States has been using a simplified technology that incorporates EPDs from several traits, weights the traits based on economic value, and produces a single economic index for the group of traits. These selection indices are presented as dollar values. As an example, you can compare two dairy bulls based on the dollars of milk that the bulls daughter's are expected to produce. Following a similar strategy, the AGA has recently undertaken to produce 3 indices for each segment of the industry (cow/calf, feedlot, carcass). The AGA has released two indices over the past two years: the Grid Merit EPD and the Feedlot Merit EPD. The AGA is still in development of the Cow/calf Merit EPD.

As with other EPDs, index EPDs are used to estimate how future progeny of one animal compare to progeny of another animal within the same breed. The Grid Merit EPD measures the dollar value associated with marketing progeny on a value-based grid. Specifically, this new index predicts the carcass value associated with selling carcasses on a grid based on quality grade, yield grade and fitting weight specifications. As an example, a bull with a Grid Merit EPD of $12 is expected to sire calves that when marketed on a "typical" grid will average $12 higher in carcass value than calves sired by a bull with an EPD of $0.

The Feedlot Merit EPD was recently released as part of the 2003 Gelbvieh genetic evaluation. Like the Grid Merit EPD, the Feedlot Merit EPD is expressed in dollars. Specifically, the Feedlot Merit EPD measures the dollar value associated with the expected gain and feedlot efficiency of progeny when fed in a "typical" feedlot arrangement. As an example, a bull with Feedlot Merit EPD of $15 is expected to sire calves that will perform $30 per head better than calves sired by a bull with an EPD of -$15.

In its continuing efforts to provide commercial breeders with the highest quality Gelbvieh bulls in the industry, the San Juan Ranch provides Grid Merit and Feedlot Merit EPD data for all of the bulls offered for sale and uses these indices in its rigorous selection criteria to improve the overall quality of its herd. This data also provides potential buyers a powerful tool for comparing San Juan Ranch herd bulls to those offered by other breeders.