Follow your plan as closely as possible to ensure you keep you breeding program on track. Selecting bulls to meet the demands of the environment and your production goals is essential to improvement. Once you have determined what priorities you wish to pursue in your breeding program you can choose the appropriate EPD's to help you with this selection. I recommend getting a sale catalog or other performance information on prospective bulls and begin by making preliminary selections using only the numbers. Rank the bulls in order of how they meet your production goals and then combine visual appraisal and performance to make a final decision.
Structure Never buy a bull on numbers alone.
How the bull appears is important both to his function and your satisfaction. Structural correctness is import to the bulls function as well as traits that are passed to his offspring. When appraising young bulls remember structural flaws such as toeing-out or post legged never get better with age, only worse. Look for bulls with good angle to their hocks and pasterns. Make sure they have some angle to their shoulder and that the hooves point forward not out.