In 1995, the Red Angus Association of America (RAAA) implemented a mandatory Total Herd Reporting (THR) program data collection system, which was the first of its kind in the industry. This was to assure its genetic predictions would be the most precise and reliable tools in the industry for selecting cattle regarding the traits they describe. This occurs because EPDs are more correct and accurate when calculated with the complete reporting of THR data, compared to EPDs from incomplete reporting, skewed data.
That Red Angus would make such a bold move as to design and implement the industry’s first THR program 26 years ago is entirely in keeping with its history. This is because making this revolutionary move was nothing new for the association, as they have been leading the industry in performance “firsts” since their inception.
In fact, Red Angus became the first incorporated performance organization in 1954 when seven breeders formed the RAAA with the express purpose of implementing the emerging science of performance testing. This was one year before the first state Beef Cattle Improvement Association was incorporated, one year before Performance Registry International was founded, four years before the next breed association would start a performance program, and 14 years before the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) was formed. The cattle RAAA chose to implement in this experiment in performance testing were castoffs, considered by the American Aberdeen-Angus Association to have a genetic defect, because they were red.
The first RAAA president, Waldo Forbes, said it all in 1954 after the formation meeting: “The policy of the (Red Angus) Association is to discourage the more artificial practices in purebred cattle production and to place its faith instead in objective tests, consisting for the most part of comparisons within herds of factors of known economic importance and known heritability. By making this an integral part of the registration system, Red Angus breeders feel that even faster progress can be made toward the ultimate goal of more efficient beef production.”
The list of firsts just continued to go on. With submitting weaning weight a requirement to have a calf registered in the association from the very beginning, the original certificates had a blank for the number of days the weaning weight would be adjusted as the industry was yet divided on whether it should be 200 or 205 days. The same occurred with yearling weights, as the association became the first to collect them, but there was a blank spot until the industry decided on 365 or 400 days.
The bottom line is THR is entirely in keeping with RAAA’s history of performance innovation. The Red Angus THR program requires the production of every cow and the performance of every calf raised through weaning be accounted for on an annual basis. This is completed on two inventories—spring and fall—to assure producers can establish their inventories at the most unbiased time, which is after weaning and pregnancy checking occurs, but before the producer’s herd starts calving.
The number of versions of whole herd (WHR) reporting systems out there is staggering—as is the number of names they go by—and the majority of them come up well short of meeting BIF Guidelines. In fact, several associations’ “whole herd reporting” programs use it just as a method to gather revenue for the association, and do not require the reporting of any data. Therefore, it’s important to “look under the hood” when an association touts their WHR system to find out exactly what their program is. If they don’t follow BIF WHR Guidelines—using two inventories, required accounting for the production of every cow, and reporting the performance of every calf in a mandatory program—it should be a buyer beware.
In terms of RAAA’s THR program, by having a whole weaning contemporary group, the genetic prediction for it is the most precise possible. However, what is even more important is most of the other genetic predictions in an analysis use weaning weight as a correlated trait to account for selection. For instance, it is expected that people will cull calves after weaning, but when a yearling weight EPD is calculated, it can account for only the better end of the calves raised through yearlings. Having the complete weaning contemporary group allows yearling EPDs to be adjusted similar to how they would have ranked if all the calves were retained. The same occurs with most other traits.
Another priority of THR is that gathering the production of every cow allowed Red Angus to publish the first female Reproductive Sire Summary in 2003. This included genetic predictions for Stayability, heifer pregnancy, calving ease direct and calving maternal. Many associations have recently started calculating female reproductive EPDs, but ultimately the quality of the predictions is still having full contemporary group observations. Heifer pregnancy is another genetic prediction that it is important to “pop the hood” on the data to make sure it is being calculated from an unbiased dataset.
Red Angus initially started developing the prediction using the yearling contemporary group and assuming that would be the group exposed, which some breeds still do. Of course, that is a faulty assumption, so RAAA started fresh, collecting data from only cattle exposed within a defined breeding window, which eliminated the cattle culled as yearlings.
The last big impact of THR is with full birth and weaning contemporary groups, the data will be assured to have a normal biological distribution. This allows easily computed data filters to be constructed for data without distributions that will be seen in nature. Thus, data with non-heritable properties can be removed prior to the analysis, assuring unbiased EPDs. This can range from not having enough variation, often seen in guessed weights, to too much variation, which will be seen when a show heifer record is turned in with the rest of her former contemporaries.
Ultimately, the key to the most precise and reliable genetic predictions is when they are based on complete unbiased data. Red Angus has led this effort from its founding in 1954 through its adoption of THR. The quest continues with modern data filters. For more information, the Beef Improvement Federation’s Guidelines for Whole Herd Reporting can be found online at guidelines.beefimprovement.org by searching for “whole herd reporting.” — Dr. Bob Hough, WLJ correspondent
