Braunvieh World Winter 2024

SA V E T H E D A T E

Junior Update

By Gage McWhirter, JBAA Vice President Hello! My name is Gage McWhirter. I am currently serving as your 2023 2024 Junior Braunvieh Association of America (JBAA) vice president. This year, the JBAA had the oppor tunity to attend the IGS Leadership Conference in Phoenix, Ariz. At the conference we visited the Biosphere and a Holstein steer feedlot. We also

got visits from multiple industry leaders highlighting agriculture in Arizona.

Watch the JBAA Facebook page and the Braunvieh Association of America website, braunvieh.org , for more information. BW PAYNE COUNTY EXPO CENTER Stillwater, Okla. National Junior Braunvieh Show June 24-28, 2024 COMING SOON! Hotel and additional information 2 0 2 4

The JBAA has been hard at work planning socials at all the livestock shows for more junior involvement. The show season is ending with only three shows left, and everyone is preparing for the Braunvieh Association of America Annual Meeting and National Sale in Fort Worth in January. The JBAA Board of Directors has been hard at work finding sponsors for the 2024 National Junior Braun vieh Show, June 24-28 in Stillwater, Okla. We are always looking for sponsors, so if you are looking to be involved in the 2024 National Junior Braunvieh Show, reach out to the JBAA Advisory Committee for more information. I speak for the whole junior board when I say thank you all very much for your unwavering support of the juniors in this amazing association. The JBAA is also working on collecting donations for the annual For the Love Auction where all benefits go straight to the junior national fund. If you have an item or basket you would like to donate, please contact one of the members of the JBAA Board to collect your item before the deadline. Thank you for supporting our juniors and this amaz ing breed we all enjoy so much. We cannot make progress without continuous support from everyone. BW

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will be 1 to >95 and tells us where that EPD is ranked within the population. Sires will be ranked against active sires, dams will be ranked against active dams, and non parents will be ranked against nonparents. There is no

good or bad in this number and it all depends on your breeding objectives. Telling me an animal has a YW EPD of 75 really tells me nothing. Telling me where it is ranked within the breed is much more important to know. But if I am comparing a Braunvieh to any other breed that is part of IGS, then the actual EPD is what I want to compare. Another useful tool under our EPDs tab is the bar graph called “Trait Rankings vs. Breed Avg.” This gives you a quick look of how this animal ranks in all the traits and the possible movement of this trait as the accuracy improves. I can’t discuss EPDs without talking about our $ Indexes, API (All Purpose Index) and TI (Terminal Index). These can be found under the “Indexes Value” tab on the EPD screen. Through well-conceived and rigorous computa tions, $ Indexes estimate an animal’s overall impact on your bottom line. The same technology that led to the dramatic progress in swine, poultry 

CREEK’S EDGE BRAUNVIEH Polled Traditional Purebreds

Larry and Pam McAfee Shipman, Illinois (618) 593-2370

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Braunvieh World  Winter 2024