At the same time, lower feed consumption resulted in a decrease in cost of gain proving the economic value of using EPDs. At Wye Angus in Maryland, cow herd manager Dean Bryant says his experience with carcass EPDs has found the high marbling bulls produce higher marbling offspring. The changes within carcass traits are greater than EPDs project though they are in the right direction. For example, a ribeye may be an inch larger than the half inch you expected. Henry Bergfeld of Summitcrest, Summitville, Ohio, says his visual appraisal backs up what his EPDs are telling him.
Milk is the easiest trait to see.
Yearling weights alone cannot always tell you about mature size but combined with mature daughter hip height, results are predictable. He can visually see size, muscle and ribeye improvements in his cattle. Summitcrest started collecting carcass data in the 1970s but did not get serious about it until the mid-1980s. At that point they began feeding all of their cattle and gathering data from their steers. They used the information in their program and shared it with the American Angus Association to create carcass data on a number of bulls.