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We would like to say thank you again to the amazing ASA staff for welcoming us, thank you to Shorthorn for teaching us all so many things and making our time here something we won’t ever forget. #shorthornlife #loveyall
Now that we are past Junior Nationals and everything has been safely and neatly been organized back into the office, we’re ready to hit the pool for our ‘Shorthorn Summer’ (after work of course!)
Watching all of our hard work being put into Junior Nationals made a great week for all three of us. We greatly enjoyed our time, working with the Juniors, working with Jr. Board and being part of 2022 National Junior Shorthorn Show!
As may of us have, all three of us grew up in the cattle industry- and all three have a uniquely different experience. Growing up in different states heavily influenced this, but being at Shorthorn and preparing for Junior Nationals, thinking about what’s all going to happen- has made us all think of our own showing experiences & we thought we would share!
After meeting and living together for almost three weeks now, all of us interns always make dinner and talk together and of course the subject of agriculture came up! We all agreed on how big of a part agriculture played in our lives and how we would not be here today without it, of course we have to brag about it. All three being from different states led to a lengthy discussion of what our different states bring to the table and how our families and friends play their part in it!
We hope you enjoy our agriculture facts and maybe learn something new about our states and what they bring to the dinner table!
– Lily, Sara, Regan
Sara, Lily, Regan oh my! Week two and the interns are still here! Get to know them a little better below!
We are all so excited to be spending our summer with the American Shorthorn Association!
written by Matt Woolfolk, ASA director of performance programs
With most of the Shorthorn bull sales completed by the time you read this (hopefully you got the bull you wanted), it’s time to shift focus to breeding season. There’s plenty of decision making to be made in your breeding program, from breeding pasture size and availability, cow to bull ratio (don’t overload the young guys), and whether to use AI or natural breeding. This month, we will focus on the breeding and mating decision aspect of the season and how you can use Digital Beef to plan matings and identify genetics to add to your herd. As always, it is important to have goals for your breeding program headed into planning your matings for the coming year. Take the time to study your own herd (genetically and phenotypically) and determine where improvements can be made in the next generation. It’s hard to get where you want to go if you don’t know where that is!
There are many ways to utilize the online breed registry to help you during breeding season planning, both from the female and male sides of the equation. Starting with the females, the “Reports” section of Digital Beef is a good resource. Utilizing the “Production Summary” report pulls together the production records on all your active females. It’s essentially the report card of your cow herd. The system will pull together all your cows, and all recorded data on their progeny, giving you the ability to see which cows are making the grades and which ones may need some time in detention! To get a better look at EPDs in the cow herd, I love using the “Custom Report Builder” feature. The Custom Report allows you to focus on the information that is of most interest to your breeding program. Reports can be pulled based on age and sex, and you can select which data points, production info, and EPDs you want presented to you on the final spreadsheet that is output at the end. This is my go-to method to efficiently study data on groups of females.
After studying those females, you might decide that AI is the most effective way to infuse the genetics that will take you towards your destination the quickest. The EPD Search function is a good option for identifying those potential AI sire candidates. Via “Search Tools” at the top of your Digital Beef page, you’re taken to the EPD search where you can enter your parameters a potential sire needs to meet. In addition to EPD thresholds (minimum and/or maximums), you can sort purebreds only, by color, and if a bull has sired registered progeny to date. Once you input search parameters, the search will give back to you a list of bulls that meet your criteria, their entire EPD profile, and a link to their individual animal page in the registry to allow for further study. You will want to enter a couple different EPD criteria into the search (to narrow the list some), but also don’t want to have criteria for every EPD (yield no matches). The message on the screen “fetching results…please be patient” needs to be adhered to, as it takes a few minutes to search the whole database. Clicking the button to start the search again just takes you back to square one and will make the process even longer.
Once you’ve identified some prospect sires, you can see how they complement your cow herd on paper using the Progeny Calculator tool in Digital Beef. You can find this feature under the Tools menu. The Progeny Calculator tool gives you a quick glimpse into projected EPD profiles of a sire (herd bull or AI) for calves out of your females. For a more in-depth discussion of this tool, you can reference back to my article in the November 2021 issue of the Country.
Best of luck with your upcoming breeding season. Hopefully, the information that Digital Beef puts at your fingertips gives you the opportunity to move your breeding program in the direction you want to take it in your pursuit of breeding better Shorthorns. If you have any questions about any of the features mentioned in this article, feel free to shoot me an email (matt@ shorthorn.org).
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (February 8, 2022) – “America’s First-Shorthorns Across America”, a limited-edition painting by renowned livestock illustrator and artist C. J. Brown has been released for public purchase. The painting was commissioned by the American Shorthorn Association to celebrate the 150th year of the American Shorthorn Association and will be treasured by many Shorthorn enthusiasts for years to come.
To commemorate each year of Shorthorns in the past, 150 limited-edition prints have been commissioned and released. The original painting will hang indefinitely in the American Shorthorn Association headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri.
During the 2022 National Shorthorn Sale, The Summit at Cattlemen’s Congress in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the first six artist proofs were sold as a donation for $20,000. These profits, and all print sale profits will benefit the Shorthorn Youth Development Fund Foundation (SYDF). The purpose of the SYDF is to provide financial support to sustain and expand the National Junior Shorthorn Show & Youth Conference held annually.
Also sold during The Summit Sale as a unique registration number to the American Shorthorn Association of Registration Number: ‘1872’, representing the beginning of the American Shorthorn Association. With profits benefiting the SYDF, this special registration number sold for $5,500 to Paint Valley Farms of Millersburg, Ohio.
“It was exciting to see the breed rally around the 150th Celebration while supporting the youth of the breed.” comments Montie D. Soules, Executive Secretary/CEO of the American Shorthorn Association.
C.J. Brown remarks that she “was honored to be commissioned to create this piece by the American Shorthorn Association in celebration of their 150th anniversary. This is a great keepsake to remember the 150th anniversary of the Shorthorn legacy for all involved in the breed.”
To purchase your print before they are sold out, contact the American Shorthorn Association.
