As the cattle industry contemplates the rebuilding of the cow herd, bull selection strategies will become incredibly important to ranchers profitability in the future. Once better known as an art, bull selection is a science now. Gone are the days when an old cowboy could walk out into a pen and say, “I like the way that bull looks.” Obviously physical characteristics are important but there is also data under the surface that is critical for a successful ranch.
The American Angus Association has released a bull selection guide that is attempting to help ranchers improve their bull selection strategies. At the NCBA 2011 conference in Denver I spoke with Crystal Young (Check out Crystal’s blog) from the American Angus Association about bull selection. One of the questions that I had for Crystal was whether or not bull selection is getting easier or more difficult with the amount of data ranchers have access to on bulls.
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