If the Records Lie, the Bull Battery Lies

Most ranchers have stood at the fence arguing about which bull sired the best calf in the pen. Half the time nobody really knows. That is fine for a conversation. It is a problem when you are choosing which bull to buy back, which cow to keep and which calves to put in the sale ring as breeding stock.

One wrong entry costs you for years

The American Angus Association put it plainly in a piece on why parentage accuracy matters: good EPDs rely on good data, and that includes pedigree. If a heavy calf is written under the wrong bull, the wrong bull looks better than he is and the right bull looks worse. You keep one, sell the other, and make your next move on a lie you told yourself in the calving barn.

Where the mistakes sneak in

I have seen them all, and so has anyone who calves a few dozen cows.

• Two or three bulls in one pasture. You cannot tell by looking. The Association says offspring from multiple-sire natural service need parentage testing to verify the sire.
• Cows calving on top of each other. A calf gets up, wanders, and a cow claims the wrong one. The same release says DNA parentage work is most useful in a case like that, or where calves may have been swapped.
• Repeat breeders. The calf you thought was by the AI sire may be out of the clean-up bull.
• Bad handwriting. Ear tag numbers with a seven that looks like a one. It happens.

What a DNA test does and does not do

A test can confirm parents and rule out wrong ones. The Association notes that the parentage database runs on a limited set of markers, so a false positive is possible, and it says plainly that it can assign parentage only if you give it a list of every possible sire and dam. Feed it a partial list and you get a partial answer. It also does not require registered cattle to be genomically tested, so whether to test is your call, made with your eyes open. And testing does not replace a scale. The release is clear that genomics adds to weights and measurements and does not stand in for them.

Why you should care even if you sell commercial calves

You may think pedigree is a seedstock man's concern. It is not. If you buy bulls on EPDs, you are paying for numbers someone else kept honest, and you owe it to your own cow herd to do the same. If you ever sell replacement heifers or ship calves into a program that wants source and genetics information, buyers pay attention to ranches that can prove what they have. Farm.fm's page on understanding bulls is a good refresher on what you are really buying when you buy a sire, and the Certified Angus Beef site, an independent brand and not part of this website, shows how carcass results come back to producers who want to use them.

A system that fits in a shirt pocket

1. Breeding groups on paper. Which cows, which bull, which dates in and out.
2. Tag calves while the cow is still licking them. Pair them up before they mingle.
3. AI records. Date, straw, tech. Do not trust memory.
4. Pull hair or tissue on the doubtful ones. Spend the money where the doubt is, not on the whole herd.
5. Copy the book. A tally book that rides on the dash of a truck will eventually ride through a creek.

The money question

Testing costs money. So do mistakes. The way to think about it is simple: would a different answer change what you do? If three bulls could have sired the best calves in the lot and you have to choose one to buy back, the test pays for itself. If the answer would not change a decision, save the money. Spend it on the groups where mistakes cost the most, like the cows you are thinking of keeping for 10 years and the young bulls you plan to sell as sires.

Also think about your reputation. A buyer who gets a bull that does not match the papers will not buy from you again, and he will tell people. A seedstock man lives on trust, and trust gets built on records that hold up.

Do it before it hurts

Call the Association's customer service if you are unsure how to set up groups, and ask your vet about sampling. The University of Nebraska beef program has solid material on genetic evaluation, and the agriculture directory can help you find a lab, a tech or a vet near you. Fees and rules change, so check current Association documents before you ship samples or register calves.

A cow herd improves slowly and fails quickly. Straight records keep it improving.