The Value of Genomic-
Enhanced EPDs
Limousin breeders and their commercial customers
benefit greatly from new breeding and selection
tools. The North American Limousin Foundation
(NALF) has been publishing genomic-enhanced EPDs
(GE-EPDs) since the fall 2015 international cattle
evaluation. This provides GE-EPDs for all Limousin and
Lim-Flex® animals that have completed DNA testing
for genomic profiles.
GE-EPDs provide more precise EPDs based on a
combination of pedigree, phenotype, and DNA. One
major benefit is risk reduction through increased
accuracy value on many traits - equivalent to having
8-20 progeny. This saves time when assessing young
breeding stock and delivers commercial customer
confidence when buying seedstock.
GE-EPDs also give the chance to collect data on
economically important traits, which are expensive or
difficult to measure.
The information from the genomic data can be
as informative as a bull’s first calf crop or a cow’s
lifetime production record. Since the genomic data is
incorporated directly into the EPDs, cattle producers
will not have to learn how to interpret the new data.
Animals that are genomic-enhanced will have the NALF
GE-EPDs displayed on their animal detail screen and
performance reports in the NALF-DigitalBeef platform.
Traits that are genomic-enhanced are high