From the Field
Strong Showing for Limousin
By Corey Wilkins, NALF regional manager
I hope everyone’s summer has been
one that has offered favorable weather
and has allowed some personal time to
spend with family. It has been refreshing
to step back from sale season for a
few weeks and spend time at industry
events and summer shows. We have just
finished up regional shows across the
country and one could not walk away
unimpressed with the quality of cattle
that our juniors brought to be evaluated.
The recent Beef Improvement
Federation (BIF) meetings were held in
Athens, Ga. The Limousin breed had a
strong showing in attendance and was
42 | AUGUST 2017
nominated and recognized for several
awards. There was much time devoted
to the discussion of EPDs, economic
indexes, and genomic enhancing.
My biggest takeaway around the
content covered was that these EPDs
and indexes are accurate and in most
cases, a wide gap in EPDs will result
in an even wider gap in the field.
I, along with most everyone else, have
at some point questioned an EPD on
a bull and in most cases that bull was
probably one of your own. Perhaps there
is that one percent chance you are right,
but I think I would bet on the accuracy
of EPDs. A good portion of actual field
data was presented at BIF, testing the
accuracy of EPDs when comparing
“big number cattle” to those with less
desirable EPDs. Not only were the EPDs
and indexes accurate, but in most cases
the difference was even greater than
expected. If you are a breeder that is still
questioning the accuracy of one of your