Choices of herd sires not only have an impact on the resulting calf crops, but these choices also affect the performance of the cow herd if daughters of the sires are kept as replacement heifers. Ideally, beef producers would like to select sires of desirable genetics for genetic improvement in economically important traits. Selection of desirable genetics to match with a cow herd is a challenging task. Fortunately, the concept of breeding value provides beef producers an avenue to make useful selection decisions. Breeding value Breeding value is defined as the value of an individual as a parent.
Parents transfer a random sample of their genes to their offspring.
Estimated breeding value gives an estimate of the transmitting ability of the parent. The word difference implies a comparison. Thus, EPDs let us compare or rank the superiority of individual animals. EPDs provide a prediction of future progeny performance of one individual compared to another individual within a breed for a specific trait. The EPDs are reported in plus or minus values in the units of measurement for the trait.