can anyone help please?

kealar

hey all,kinda new to all this so go easy,does anyone know,what and how these" suckler beef values", sbv work or how to read them,im looking to start up a suckler heard over the comming year and thinking of going down the AI route...has anyone here gone down this road???

pakalasa

I'll give it a go. I've been using AI for the last few years and I always look at these figures.

Firstly, the SBV (Suckler Beef Value) is an overall value combining all the traits of the bull into one. So a bull with a high SBV is a "good bull". The problem is, it doesn't tell you in what way the bull is good. So in a way it doesn't tell you anything.

What you've got to do is look at the individual traits of the bull.
For example if you are selling all the calves as weanlings, then only look at the Weanling Index and the Calving Difficulty. Generally, the higher the weanling index, the harder calving the bull is. For heifers, use very easy calving bulls yet look for a decent enough weanling index. For example, the Limousin bull FL22 at NCBC scores 92% (within the Limousin breed) for weanling and 99% for calving. These are percentile values, so he is in the top 8% of limousin weanlings yet also in the top 1% for calving. This makes him ideal for use on young heifers.

If you go to
www.icbf.com
and type in FL22 in the box on the lower right hand side, you can see these values.

If you plan to keep the calves to slaughter, then consider the Beef Carcass value. Some bulls can be low in the Weanling value yet high in the Beef Carcass, HKG simmental for example.

To breed good replacements, it gets a bit trickier as there are a few to consider. Milk, fertility, Maternal calving,docility & beef traits passed on to calves etc. Milk and fertility are combined into one value. Maternal Calving can be seen under the Milk and Fertility tab in www.ICBF.com . A high value here shows the bull breeds heifers that calve easily (big hips). Beef traits passed on comes under 'Calf Quality'.

I hope this explains it a little. I just ignore the € values and just look at the % values. The * are also good - so *****, or five stars means that the value is in the top 20%.
Hope this helps.:D:D:D

kealar

cheers,that done the trick,we run a farm where we buy in weanling bulls and finish them to slughter,but i wnt go go down a different route,having been around the marts last back end, these weanlings going for export seem to be the way to go,i know it wont be plain sailing but id like to get it rite from the word go,everyone seems to be talking about the limXbf for the cow side of things,any thoughts??

pakalasa

Type of suckler cow has been well discussed here before.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055631139

If you are going out to buy heifers in the mart then Black limousins out of Friesien cows are hard to beat. Difficult to get them now with the Holstein influence. Avoid the mad ones - worth taking time in the mart and go into the pens to spot the quite ones. Get them big and growty with big square hips. Let the bull add the muscle. The cow will have the muscle in her genes anyway without showing it.
You can then cross them back to Limousin with good Milk and Fertility values to add a bit more beef to the cow side of things.

vanderbadger

pakalasa have you ever used dovea BB bull (code BBQ), have ai'd a few cows to him lately, he is an easy calver according to catalogue, just wondered how his calves turn out..sorry to wander off topic

pakalasa

Hi Vanderbadger,
Sorry, I don't use Dovea only NCBC so can't help you there.
He does look easy calving alright.