Executive Summary
Change Continues in the U.S.
Seedstock Industry
By Mark Anderson, NALF executive director
DNA testing and advancements
in single-step National Cattle
Evaluations continues to evolve
and impact the way progressive
seedstock operations do
business throughout the United
States. Not only are seedstock
operations increasingly
demanding that their new
purchases be genomically
enhanced, but commercial
buyers in the country are
starting to recognize the
added value of purchasing
cattle that have more reliable
accuracies for listed EPD traits
within all breeds of cattle.
the old method of blending
molecular breeding used in
the past, additional EPD traits
of economic importance will
begin to be published and
utilized in the near future. Feed
efficiency, as it relates to dry
matter conversion backed by
cattle that have phenotypic
data through bull test programs
in various bull test stations
will continue to push the
As the industry continues to
take advantage of genomic
testing backed by the power of
single-step cattle evaluations
that directly incorporate
genomic marker effects versus
Effective progeny counts for interim EPD derived from differing combinations of pedigree, performance and genomic data.
BIF Acc
Effective Progeny Counts
Trait Heritability PE PE + GE PERF PERF + GE PE PE + GE PERF PERF + GE
CED 0.19 0.04 0.40 0.27 0.47 1 34 16 50
BW 0.37 0.04 0.46 0.26 0.51 0 24 8 32
WW 0.29 0.04 0.26 0.28 0.39 1 10 11 21
YW 0.23 0.04 0.41 0.26 0.47 1 30 13 42
MILK 0.16 0.04 0.34 0.04 0.34 2 31 - -
CEM 0.15 0.04 0.37 0.04 0.37 2 38 - -
CW 0.23 0.04 0.42 0.28 0.49 1 32 15 46
REA 0.46 0.02 0.40 0.27 0.47 0 13 6 20
MARB 0.54 0.03 0.60 0.30 0.63 0 33 6 39
FAT 0.35 0.02 0.46 0.30 0.53 0 25 11 36
PE = Pedigree estimate interim EPD; PE + GE = Pedigree estimate plus genomic data; PERF = Performance record included in interim EPD calculation; PERF + GE =
Performance record included in interim EPD calculation plus genomic data.
Source: Dr. Robery Weaber, Kansas State University, 2015
8 | APRIL 2019