Profitability Index

[DRB]

Been some talk about $ index EPDs lately - I came across the Leachman $Profit EPD which seems like Leachman developed himself... I assume this is somehow part of the Black Angus deal, but not sure since he's got composites as well.  Anyone know more info or have experience with it?  Or general opinions?  Seems something like this would definitely depend on how you weight things - he says it covers everything from birth to slaughter.  Think the focus is on the calves here, live calves, WW, feedlot performance, carcass quality.

http://www.leachman.com/movies/leachman_promo.wmv

 

[sue]

pretty cool. I was just on his web page. 

 

[chambero]

If you want cows that make you money, go buy them from and model yourself after the ranches that have been around for decades doing the same thing - not from outfits that change directions every few years or that just suddenly show and gain publicity by buying high sellers at popular sales.  Every breed has these types whose cattle are just really tax writeoffs.  Follow the guys who have there and done that.  There is so much variation and uncertainty in EPDs like that.  Profitability depends more on your land and your environment than actual cattle in the long run.

 

[DRB]

If you want cows that make you money, go buy them from and model yourself after the ranches that have been around for decades doing the same thing - not from outfits that change directions every few years or that just suddenly show and gain publicity by buying high sellers at popular sales.  Every breed has these types whose cattle are just really tax writeoffs.  Follow the guys who have there and done that.  There is so much variation and uncertainty in EPDs like that.  Profitability depends more on your land and your environment than actual cattle in the long run.

Good advice Chambero.

I think following operations that are well established and doing well is a big piece of the puzzle.  Finding the ones that are aligned with what you want to do can sometimes be challenging

On the Leachman thing, I did hear that he actually uses Beef Improvement Ontario to generate his EPDs, (based in Guelph Ontario), which I think focuses more on across breed EPDs.  These may in the end be more useful to the commercial person instead of trying to figure out how a shorthorn vs charolais vs angus EPD compare to each other...    Also, I guess Leachman has about 5000 head so they can do alot of comparisons and collect alot of data on their own cattle for comparison and accuracy.