Simmental milk EPD’s

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kentuckyguy

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2020
Messages
6
I am new to breeding Simmentals and can’t help but notice how many bulls have horrible milk EPD’s.

Seems like about every bull I want to use ends up with a milk EPD in the bottom 95% of the breed.

Are the daughters out of bulls with a low milk EPD milking good? Lots of breeders are using these bulls extensively so I can’t help but think it’s not really reliable.

Seems there would have to be some justification for a bull that’s been used 4-5 years that has a low milk EPD but I may be wrong.
 

Lucky_P

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 27, 2012
Messages
326
We had Simmental-influenced cattle since 1984... never had one that didn't have plenty of milk.
You do realize that the Milk epd is not a maternal trait... it's a production trait, and comes with a feed price tag, just like the other production traits... WW & YW. 
Don't know that I ever gave any significant consideration to Milk epd when choosing a SM sire... except trying to find one that wasn't too high! 
 

RyanChandler

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
3,457
Location
Pottsboro, TX
First thing you’ve got to do is to stop interpreting EPD levels as inherently ‘good’ or ‘bad.’  You used the word ‘horrible’ to describe a low value.  That’s not a sound approach.  The EPD unit of measurement itself is nothing but data.  This data only identifies a particular level of performance  Only once it’s viewed within the context of the RESOURCES available in your production environment can that data THEN be used as useful information.

With a breed like Simmental whose origins are dual purpose-  the milk levels of those in the top percentiles represent dairy production levels and are wayyyy too high for any commercial beef application.  This likely holds true for any milk production levels (EPd) above the 50 percentile mark. 

I don’t know Simmental bloodlines but if the breeders you mention are cattleman and they’re using bottom 95th percentile milk EPd bulls, my speculation is that this bottom 95% milk level is still adequate. 
 
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