Everything Horses and Livestock® Magazine February 2018 Vol 3 Issue 1

Everything Horses and Livestock Magazine ®

number comes from how long before their older relatives were culled. I still have a cow that was born in 2003 in my herd. She has had a spring calf for fourteen years in a row. Wish they all could do that! DOC stands for docility, self- explanatory; how easy the bull/ cow is to work with and safe to be around. This number though does (in my opinion) have an environmental and or human side to it. We all know there is more than one-way to move and work cattle. This is why it is also nice, if possible to visit or if not at least gather some information about the farm from where the bull is coming from. BQA (Beef Quality Assurance) is a nice course offered to help

understand some of the things we can do to make the animals remain quiet while we are working with them. These first ten make up the “Growth and Maternal” part of the EPDs. The last five are the carcass numbers; these are helpful when larger calf crops are sold. Also, if you can retain ownership through a feedlot and then sale your calves on the rail or as hanging weights. Yield Grade (YG) how many lbs. of packaged meat really comes from the hanging side of beef after all the excess fat has been trimmed. I raise Limousin and Lmi-Flex (Angus, Limousin cross) and normally get an YG in the low sixty percent. If you by sides of beef remember,

you are paying for the hanging weight. Hanging weight is the CW (carcass weight); this is the weight before any processing has been done. So if two comparable sides of beef weigh 300lbs and you can get a sixty percent YG from one and a fifty percent from the other, which is the better buy? REA or the Ribeye area is expressed in square inches is a predictor of the difference in ribeye area of a sire's progeny compared to progeny of other sires. The bigger the better here, I love prime rib! MB marbling accounts for marbling and fat in the meat. Limousin are known for a leaner meat Continued on Page 58

19 Everything Horses and Livestock® | February 2018 | EHALmagazine.com