Simmental Breeders Milk EPD

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jagerbeef

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 31, 2011
Messages
87
Just started to raise some simmentals and was wondering at what point have you found that the milk epd turns a cow from easy keeping to harder doing.  In angus we found it to be around 20 to 22, anything higher the cattle weren't easy keeping anymore.  What is the tipping point in simmentals?
 

GONEWEST

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
921
Location
GEORGIA
Don't know about your cows, but good luck finding many decent bulls with good milk EPD's. I have raised Simmentals since 1977 and in my opinion, the breed has swung WAY too far toward lowering the milk EPD's. Just get an Angus or Hereford if you don't want a cow that milks.
Not too long ago the resident jester in charge of performance at the ASA had a two page article in the register trying to explain why the milk EPD in Simmental cattle was so inaccurate in many cases. His idea was the environmental factors play much more of a role on how a cow actually milks than genetic evaluation can predict. The Simmental cow that milks like a Holstein and has a negative milk EPD can be found at will. My question to the dumbest association in the industry is if the Milk EPD is so far off then why do you do so much research on it and why do you publish it with high accuracies? Also the associations EPD model puts WAY too much weight on the relationship between high growth EPD's and low milk.  Compound all of that with the FACT that many Simmental breeders with large numbers of cattle are so fed up with the THE program and all the hoops they have to jump through to keep it up, many just write down whatever comes to mind when registration time comes. EPD's are only as accurate ans the information that backs them up.

To be accurate, you are going to have to visually appraise a Simmental cow to determine if she is easy keeping enough for you. It's just how it is.
 
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