The pile of sale catalogs glued, stapled, or wrapped in the monthly breed publications can get a bit overwhelming in the peak sale seasons, regardless of your breed preference.  However, the real confusion sets in when one puts on their bull-buying cap and tries to find “the one” that will take their herd in the right direction.  Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) are still the only selection tool that truly allows a buyer to compare one sale catalog to the rest in the stack.  Unfortunately, Carcass EPDs are not always readily available as you flip the pages from one lot to the next.  So what do you do?

First of all, there are a number of reasons why some Carcass EPDs are not printed. Some breeders choose not to provide carcass information if they believe their buyer clientele ignores the numbers.  If carcass or ultrasound data is important to you or your customers, simply throw that catalog in the trash and go to the next one in the stack.  However, you may also be looking at a breed or composite that does not have Carcass EPDs yet.  In many cases, since seedstock are scanned close to a year of age, individual records cannot be taken before the catalog goes to print; some of the animals are simply too young to be age-adjusted.  Instead, a supplement sheet is printed for sale day or posted online as soon as it’s ready.  Regardless of where you choose to buy your next herd sire or replacement female, it’s important to understand how to properly evaluate the ultrasound information available.

The rising price of diesel makes one quickly re-evaluate how many sales one really needs to drag the trailer to in order to find the herd’s needs.  A few extra hours of homework can save considerable time and effort; keep in mind, one tank of diesel is now worth at least one more bid on the bull or heifer you really want.  If ultrasound data is used as a buying or sorting tool and Carcass EPDs are not provided, here are some sound steps to follow:

Ask the breeder(s) or sale manager for a complete list of ultrasound data as soon as it’s available.  Email attachments or electronic copies may work better, allowing you to sort, rank, and identify animals that may be of special interest to you on sale day.  Remember, an “interim” or “pedigree estimate” EPD gives you more information about the genetic potential of an animal than any individual record.  Always look for EPDs first and foremost, followed by ratios, age-adjusted values, and then actual records, in that order.

Review the printout for within-herd ratios.  Second only to EPDs, ratios are the best tool to assess and rank animals within a trait.  Ratios are calculated from age-adjusted values which “level the playing field” between older and younger animals in the sale.  The power of a ratio increases when contemporary groups are held intact, encouraging breeders to scan the entire crop of bulls and heifers.  In other words, the bad ones make the good ones better.   Remember, a Fat Ratio over 100 means the animal will add more backfat to their offspring than the average of the contemporary group.  Buyers looking to increase retail yield should select heavy muscled bulls with Ribeye Area (REA) Ratios over 100 and/or Fat ratios below 100.

Next, if ratios are not printed, look for age-adjusted values for each trait.  Using this data, one can calculate a ratio within a contemporary group by simply dividing the trait value of each animal by the average trait value, then multiplying the answer by 100.  Some electronic supplement sheets allow you to rank the adjusted values; which essentially sorts the cattle within a trait.  Age-adjusted values are extremely important.  They keep buyers from flocking to the oldest animals in the sale which often have the heaviest yearling weight, biggest REA, or highest Percent Intramuscular Fat (%IMF) value.  For this reason alone, younger bulls and heifers can become “sleepers” in the sale order, allowing you to buy a better beast for far less money.

Finally, actual scan figures can still be used as an effective selection tool, but one must proceed with immense caution.  Unfortunately, auctioneers and sale managers often like to highlight actual scan data as a major selling point.  The most likely place to find actual ultrasound data without ratios or age-adjustments is a consignment sale.  Breeders may select their very best individual animals to go to this sale, but his or her cow herd may not be large enough to justify scanning all the offspring as yearlings for submission to the breed’s genetic evaluation.  As a buyer, you are left with a bunch of one-head contemporary groups of varying pre- and post-weaning management techniques.  If you take nothing else from this article, please remember this:  Do not directly compare the actual ultrasound data from one lot to the next in a consignment sale!  Some individuals may have been “pampered” since the day their mothers licked them off.  Other consignors stalled right next to them may grow their bulls or heifers on limited feed and labor resources.  Obviously, one would expect the pampered animal to out-weigh and out-scan the other raised with a cheaper feed bill.