Lynsey McAnally (00:02):

Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman. Brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin, we have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let's get to work, shall we?

Miranda Reiman (00:24):

Welcome to Angus at Work. I'm your host, Miranda Reiman, and today I have Esther Tarpoff joining us from the staff at the American Angus Association where Esther is the director of performance programs. We're going to get into a topic that is probably very well-timed, given that we're coming right into spring bull-sale season. You might be looking over bull catalogs you're getting in the mail right now. So I guess first, Esther, let's start off by just giving me a little brief background of who's Esther Tarpoff and what you do there at the Association?

Esther Tarpoff (00:55):

Yeah, you bet. So I grew up on a registered Angus operation in Kansas. I grew up in the National Junior Angus program, also in the state program in Kansas. Did all my education at Kansas State University - my bachelors, masters and PhD - in animal science. After school, I was fortunate enough to start with the Association in this role as director of performance programs, which essentially is overseeing all the data that breeders submit. Those birth weights, weaning weights, foot scores, etc. that go into that genetic evaluation and then resulting EPDs and dollar values. That would be my area there at the Association.

Miranda Reiman (01:35):

So today we're going to talk about cross breed EPD comparisons and the foundation, that you just mentioned, of your work at the Associationåç is probably a good place to start. Let's just first start about the American Angus Association, EPDs, how they're calculated and how we arrive at those numbers that we see in our sale catalogs.

Esther Tarpoff (01:54):

Yeah, sure. Our expected progeny differences are really a number that allow us to take a look at what do we expect the genetic differences between animals to be as we make the selection decisions for the next generation. What do we expect the progeny of those animals to do? Right? So it's expected, it's a calculation for the progeny. We look at the differences. So you have to be able to make that comparison between, so they're not exact, they are an estimated value, but they do a pretty good job of giving us an inside look to that animal and what we can expect compared to another animal and how they're going to perform. So as far as what goes into those calculations, there's a lot of information. We think about the database that's at the American Angus Association. It's a pretty powerful database. So those numbers are a combination of both what we know about the ancestry or that pedigree. It takes into account what we know about how that individual animal performed within its contemporary group. So being compared against animals that were raised in the same environment. If there's any progeny information available, we do the same thing with that. We would include it as well as any genotype information that we would have. That's all combined into that evaluation for those EPDs.

Miranda Reiman (03:12):

And so when you're looking at EPDs among the American Angus Association, if you're looking at a bull from Texas to a bull from Missouri to a bull from South Dakota, you should be able to have a reasonable expectation ... I mean it's fairly comparable from one animal to another?

Esther Tarpoff (03:29):

Yeah, it is. And the big piece of that is something we call contemporary groups. So we compare those animals within the herd within an environment that they all would have the same opportunity to perform, whether it be Texas or South Dakota. But then we can take and separate out the differences of how they performed in that environment through that national cattle evaluation to have a number that's comparable across coast to coast.

Miranda Reiman (03:55):

Now let's talk a little bit about those across breed EPD comparisons. If I'm looking at a bull sale catalog that may have multiple breeds in it, am I able to take the same numbers and look from Angus to Hereford to Charolais to then compare them apple to apples?

Esther Tarpoff (04:15):

So that's a great question, and it's very common that you'll see multiple breeds within one sale catalog. But the answer to that is no, probably you can't. Unless they have done something in their catalog and they've made it very clear that they have already taken those adjustment factors into consideration, which likely they have not. You can't compare outside of one breed. So you can't take the Angus EPDs and directly look at them compared to say, a Herford or a Simmentall or a Charolais without adjusting them. And the reason for that is that we are all in separate genetic evaluations. So the information that is supporting the genetic evaluation at the Angus Association is different than that of say, Simmental, Charlolais, Red Angus, etc. And so you have to only compare within that same population that it came out of the same genetic evaluation. If you're going to compare across those, that's whenever these EPD adjustments from MARC come into play.

Miranda Reiman (05:12):

Excellent. So you mentioned us MARC. The great part is they've already done a long bit of work for us - or a big share of work for us - to help us understand how breeds are comparable. Why don't you just explain a little bit about the U.S. Meat Animal Research Centers across breed EPD calculations and what those are?

Esther Tarpoff (05:33):

Yeah, so U.S. MARC has been in Clay Center, Neb. since 1993. They have provided the industry the opportunity to be able to have those adjustment factors so we could compare different breeds to be able to have them on kind of the same base. And so without getting into a lot of the details in terms of how they do that, they do have what they call their germplasm evaluation project. So they've got a herd of commercial cows and essentially the way that the project works is that they will select prominent bulls from the most commonly used breeds in the U.S. So we think about those breeds that would have a big impact on the beef industry. They're picking the most widely used prominent sires each year and then mating those to these commercial females. So then the resulting calves that are raised in the same environment have had the same resources opportunities. They're comparing how those calves perform to then be able to eventually get to the steps of having the cross breed EPD adjustments.

Miranda Reiman (06:38):

So they've already done really the legwork for us, and the breeder just needs to do a little bit of math? There's a table that they have that compares everything back to an Angus base. So if you look at the chart, it would show Angus says zero in all of these traits, but then explain, walk through how you would do that math.

Esther Tarpoff (06:57):

So fortunately, while the behind the scenes math is very complicated that U.S. MARC does, the resource that we have as breeders or commercial cattle producers is very simple. All you do is you look at the table and you just add the differences. So if we look up the most recent ones that were published, say in 2024, if we look at something and we would want to compare it to say, Angus, if we look at an animal or a breed on here, and it's an adjustment of 2.1 for birth weight, whatever their birth weight is in the sale catalog, you would add 2.1 to that in order to have it comparable to the Angus base. So anything Angus we're not adding to in terms of their EPDs, but other breeds, you would add whatever the value is on this table for that trait in order to get it to a comparable Angus base.

Miranda Reiman (07:50):

Or subtract also.

Esther Tarpoff (07:52):

Correct. There are some negative numbers on there. So I say add, but you're adding a negative, so it would subtract to get there. Yep, you're right, Miranda.

Miranda Reiman (08:01):

Yeah, very good. And now they don't have it on every trait available in the Angus suite of EPDs because really not every breed has all the same data collected. So it's on sort of the most popular ones we would say or most used.

Esther Tarpoff (08:19):

Yeah, you definitely nailed that. It's not for every trait. Angus definitely has a suite of EPDs that not necessarily every breed has available right now, but those commonly used EPDs such as the birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight? We think about that milk or that maternal weaning value and then our carcass traits like marbling, ribeye fat and carcass weight.

Miranda Reiman (08:40):

Sure. I think one thing that's been interesting to me is I've watched some of these values change over the years and things is just maybe some of our commonly held misconceptions of how breeds might stack up against each other might've changed. So if you did these cross breed EPD calculations maybe 5 or 10 years ago, but haven't done them recently, maybe it's time to do the calculations again.

Esther Tarpoff (09:04):

You bet. And U.S. MARC does this around yearling weight. They made some adjustments to how that's being calculated from a yearling weight to more of the BIF or Beef Improvement Federation post-weaning gain value. So they do make adjustments to that. So definitely keeping up and using the most recent adjustments - they publish them every year, typically in January - is definitely the way to go just to be up-to-date with how those are being calculated.

Miranda Reiman (09:32):

And if you're using multiple bulls in your breeding program, it sometimes is also just a way to maybe put into perspective, or I guess sometimes it's a little bit surprising if you're looking at a percentile rank in a certain breed, it helps you realize that maybe a low birth weight bull in one breed is maybe a mid-weight if you do the adjustments. So it's maybe middle of the road in another, or marbling might be high marbling in one breed while it looks different in another breed. Those kinds of things.

Esther Tarpoff (10:02):

Yeah. So maybe another way to say that is what's average in one breed, may be below average in another. And so at face value what seems like, 'Hey, that number and that catalog looks all right,' you do the comparison and maybe it's not what you thought you were going to be buying. Maybe it still works for you, but maybe there's a better decision to be made either within that same breed or a different breed just depending on what direction your breeding program is set.

Miranda Reiman (10:28):

Absolutely. So I think that this is something that we wanted to bring to commercial cattlemen, especially as I mentioned in the opening, is we head into a big run of bull sales across the United States coming up January through March or our heaviest seasons here. Is there anything else that you want people to know about or do you think would be helpful as they go to consider their genetic selection?

Esther Tarpoff (10:52):

There is one more piece of this project. We talk about those EPD adjustment factors that for sure get the most use of the two pieces of information. But the other piece of the project that U.S. MARC would publish these breed of sire averages, which basically is taking a look at the sires that they're using, what are those average differences among those progeny? Again, as we think about how they set that up and how they're able to do this kind of a project, again, it's alongside this germplasm project. It's just kind of piece number one. And then piece number two is that they work through mating two bulls from different breeds to cows of a third non-related breed. So we're making strategic matings with it, but what we're able to do is then take a look at what are the average differences among those breeds of sires.

And so as you mentioned earlier, sometimes it does surprise you with just things that you hear as far as, well, this is the leading breed for this trait, or this is the leading breed in this trait, or whatever the case may be. What's really cool about it, especially as you think about it for the Angus breed, is that Angus continue to come in with some of the lightest birth weights, right? But they're among the heaviest at weaning. We see the heaviest yearling weights coming out of those Angus sired calves. And then you look at the carcass side of the equation for things like carcass weight and marbling, and they have the largest carcass weights, and they were the highest marbling breed of average sire there. So there's a lot to be said for looking at the second part of that too, as far as how breeds are ranking for those differences as well.

Miranda Reiman (12:35):

Definitely identified the hard work that Angus breeders have done to produce curve bending bulls en mass.

Esther Tarpoff (12:42):

You bet. I can. Sure. I'm younger than some definitely. But it's been said that you can't necessarily have a light birth weight without smaller weaning, smaller yearling. Through the genetic tools that we have available, those EPDs Angus breeders have definitely met that mark and that demand for a little bit lighter, but we still want 'em to grow and perform on the rail and still have a cow that stays in the herd.

Miranda Reiman (13:06):

Well, if you've listened to this podcast before, we always like to end on a little bit of good news. So whether you have something personal or professional to share, tell me a little bit of good news today.

Esther Tarpoff (13:16):

So really good news as we think about as we're in the genetic selection tool realm, we are anticipating, we have three traits that are in research right now. So teat size, udder suspension, and then our functional longevity number. We're anticipating release of those for all cattle here come May 2025 time period. So we're very excited that we have three EPDs in research, but we are getting really close to having those released two commercial cattlemen and all Angus members here in really about 5 to 6 months.

Miranda Reiman (13:46):

Absolutely. It'll be great to have some objective selection tools to help compliment the focus that breeders have put on some of those traits for years and give them a chance to make directional change even more quickly.

Esther Tarpoff (13:59):

You bet.

Miranda Reiman (14:01):

Well, thank you, Esther, for taking the time to visit with me today!

Esther Tarpoff (14:04):

Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it!

Lynsey McAnally (14:13):

Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org, and we would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening! This has been Angus at Work.