Purchasing the right bull can quickly move your beef herd toward your production goals. However, buying the right bull doesn’t start on sale day; it begins months in advance.

Purchasing the right bull can quickly move your beef herd toward your production goals. However, buying the right bull doesn’t start on sale day; it begins months in advance.

#1: Establish Short- and Long-Term Breeding Goals

Before looking at bulls, identify what you want your herd to achieve in the short and long-term. Your breeding program should align with your operation’s resources, management style and future plans.

For example, knowing the traits that you want your calves to have (e.g. lighter birth weight, better growth, carcass quality, maternal traits), will better prepare you to match those goals with the genetic potential offered by available bulls.

#2: Determine the Traits to Focus On

Based on your goals, determine which traits to select for. As an example, if you are breeding first calf heifers, selecting bulls with higher calving ease is essential. In contrast, if you are not retaining replacement females and sell all calves after backgrounding, consider focusing on weaning weight (WW) and yearling weight (YW), with moderate emphasis on carcass and feed efficiency traits.

Use expected progeny differences (EPDs) to predict how a bull’s offspring will perform, on average, compared to offspring from another bull. Emphasis on specific EPDs can help accelerate genetic improvements but remember to avoid single trait selection. Consider prioritizing economically relevant traits (ERTs) and using selection indexes to combine multiple traits into one value.