BEEF cattle studs – from Angus to Speckle Park – and breeders from as far afield as Guyra in NSW and across Victoria gathered at Mortlake in Western Victoria for the Te Mania Angus ‘day in the yards’.
They had come to see and hear Jim Green demonstrate and explain the Beef Class Structural Assessment system for feet and legs.
Jim also gave a valuable and detailed presentation while he assessed temperament, muscle, sheath and hair type.
In one week Jim and the Te Mania Angus team put Te Mania’s 770 young bulls (13-16 months) through their assessments. The heifers from the same drop had been previously assessed.
The data for all the entire drop will be submitted to Breedplan for analysis, continuing the stud’s long relationship with AGBU and Angus Australia.
Te Mania Angus was an early adopter of structural assessment and has been running a disciplined structural assessment program since 1994.
Today Te Mania Angus data remains the most dominant within Breedplan and its figures continue to underpin this critical industry database.
The value of EBVs over raw data is they are the fast track to improving the genetic profile and bottom-line performance of any herd.
EBVs give a benchmarked breeding predictability (genotype) while raw data is a scale of how the animal presents (phenotype).
Structural soundness EBVs must be a primary reference for improving the structural soundness of future progeny regardless of whether they are future breeders or destined for the restaurant trade.
Selecting animals with superior structural soundness EBVs is paramount to genetically improving structural traits in a beef breeding enterprise.
As with selection for any trait, genetic improvement for structural soundness will be achieved if the breeding animals are genetically superior to those used in previous years.
This is absolutely essential when selecting sires due to the overall influence of their genetics in a herd in the short and long term.
Day in the yards participant Rose Messer, Glenormiston, described it as “an incredible opportunity to hear from people with so much experience with Angus cattle”.
“I’m starting a new herd and found this day very relaxed and very informative,” she said.
“It was so good, and I’m surprised it’s put on for free.”
See video of Tom Gubbins introducing Jim Green.
