First of the First Cross Sales
The annual sales of young Friesian cross females commenced
last week at Warrnambool in Victoria.
Normally they are in calf to Limousin or Angus bulls and there is a very
significant premium for the heifers in calf to Limousin bulls. In the Warrnambool sale nearly all of the
heifers were in calf to Limousin bulls so it was not possible to calculate the
premium. The top priced pen of females
which made $1,480 were Angus X Friesian heifers in calf to a Limousin
bull. Not surprisingly the six top
priced pens were all in calf to Limousin.
Why do EBVs Change?
This is the time of the year
when the phone starts ringing with questions about why the EBVs of a certain
bull or cow have changed from last year.
The answer is that each year more information on weights, carcase scans
and docility is added for the progeny and grand progeny of each sire and dam.
Every EBV for every animal
is recalculated using all of the available information each time the analysis
is done. While it can be very
frustrating when EBVs change in a negative direction for an AI sire or a young
herd sire, it is fair to say that the most recent EBVs are the most accurate
because more information has been used.
It is important to
understand that low accuracy EBVs (less than 75% accuracy) are likely to change
more than high accuracy EBVs (above 90% accuracy). This means the EBVs of a young unproven bull are likely to change
more than the EBVs of a high accuracy AI sire.
An advantage of having two
Breedplan analyses per year will be an earlier warning of EBVs that are going
to change.
WA Premier Bull Sale
In last week's schedule of sales I overlooked the WA
Premier Bull Sale scheduled for 1st March 2006 at the Boyanup
Selling Complex. The catalogue of 26
bulls is on the web.
Web
Catalogues
Talking of web catalogues here are a couple of hints for
those who are new to the Limousin
website. When you click into a
catalogue you will only see a summary of the first 15 lots. To look at the full details of an animal you
need to click on the animal's name.
The see the next 15 lots click on the "next" icon
on the top right. If you want to see
EBVs for a group of 15 animals you will need to click on the icon "Show
all EBVs" on the top left.
You can also search and sort the catalogue by clicking on
the "Search/Sort Catalogue" icon which allows you for example to
select only polled, apricot animals with a maximum birth weight of +3.0 kg and
a domestic terminal sire $Index of greater than +$20. The options are endless.
Sale catalogues are a very popular part of our website
which during 2005 received a total of 456,973 page hits from 3,319 different
visitors. This was up by 58 percent on
the previous year.
Top Prices for Karl
Limousin enthusiast Karl Stoeckler from Ripplebrook in
Victoria called in with some good prices for cattle sold late in 2005. Two young bull calves 305 kg and 240 kg sold
for 226.2 c/kg and 230 c/kg to make $689 and $552 respectively. He also sold a 550 kg heifer for 149 c/kg or
$990 and a 16 year old cow weighing 655 kg for 149 c/kg or $977.
Warragul Tops
1 Limousin X vealer 475 kg @
221.2 c/kg = $1,050 acc. N. Renshaw, Lillico.
1 Limousin X vealer 365 c/kg
@ 213.6 c/kg = $779 acc. B. Loye, Buln Buln.
1 Limousin bull 875 kg @
159.6 c/kg = $1,396 acc. L. Moore.
Korumburra Top
1 Limousin X vealer 450 kg @
190 c/kg = $855 acc. N. Geary, Booral.
Yours in Limousin
Alex McDonald