Performance Line
MILK & Total Maternal EPDs Explained
By Tonya Amen, National Center for Beef Excellence
One of the EPDs that I receive the most questions about is
the MILK EPD, so the topic of this month’s article will include
discussion of the MILK EPD and its counterpart, the Total
Maternal EPD. Milk and Total Maternal EPDs are important in
bull selection when replacements will be retained in the herd,
but they are two EPDs that are sometimes not understood.
Milk EPDs:
Unlike direct growth EPDs, like weaning weight that
predict the weight difference in the own progeny of
bulls, Milk EPDs are expressed slightly differently. Milk
EPDs reflect the maternal ability of an animal’s daughters
and are expressed as additional pounds of calf weaned
by a bull’s daughters due to maternal effects.
the operation in which the bulls’ daughters will be expected
to perform. In other words, more milk is not necessarily better
as heavier milking cows may require more nutritional inputs
to maintain body condition and reproductive efficiency.
In addition, for commercial producers, breed needs to be
an important consideration when evaluating milk EPDs.
Some popular U.S. breeds have trended significantly
higher for Milk EPDs in recent years and some moderation
may be important if replacements are to be retained.
Total Maternal (TM) EPDs:
When choosing the appropriate EPD range for the Milk EPD,
one needs to consider the feed resources and environment of
Like Milk EPDs, TM EPDs are expressed as the predicted
weaning weight differences of bulls’ maternal grand- progeny.
Total Maternal EPD predicts the total difference in weight
of bulls’ daughters’ calves at weaning – due to both the
maternal ability of the daughter (Milk EPD) as well as the
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