star rating on icbf

charityboy

was looking up a few bulls on the icbf site . looked up a few easy calving bulls yet their star rating is low for calving difficulty .is there an explanation for this ,would be new to using the icbf site

Bizzum

charityboy wrote: »

was looking up a few bulls on the icbf site . looked up a few easy calving bulls yet their star rating is low for calving difficulty .is there an explanation for this ,would be new to using the icbf site

Give us a few examples?

charityboy

BBQ ballyfin borat a belgium blue bull from dovea sold as an easy calving straw and i have never had any probs calving yet he is only rated as a one star for calving

vanderbadger

charityboy wrote: »

BBQ ballyfin borat a belgium blue bull from dovea sold as an easy calving straw and i have never had any probs calving yet he is only rated as a one star for calving

blues would still be considered hard calving compared to lots of breeds, angus for example, if you look at bbq you will see within his breed he is considered very easy calving and has 4 stars but when considered against all other breeds he would be a little harder, he is 9.4 % so its still not too bad, every 9 calves out of 100 might be tricky..its probably still being a bit hard on him giving him 1 star though

charityboy

what yere views on this fellas ratings ODY

Bizzum

charityboy wrote: »

what yere views on this fellas ratings ODY

When you use the Eurostar system you need to pay attention to the data reliabitity as much as the star rating itself.
ODY's figures are reasonably good but not very high reliability. But the more he is used the better the reliability will become.
I must as my AI man what sort of calves ODy is getting again. I know I did already but I forget!

RobinBanks

I wonder about the accuracy of these ICBF ratings. Who completes these surveys? I know I do but my AI mans wife completes his. He told me not to rely on these figures as they could be way off. A perfect example would be a cow of mine. She is by Malibu out of a LM cow that had very little milk. Malibu has only 1 or 2 stars for milk yet she could rare two calves. Another example would be the BB bull CGG. According to ICBF he is 6% yet my neighbor lost a calf that was the length of the powerbox. No way would you have said this was by an easy calving bull. I know there are exceptions to the rule but I would take these figures with a pinch of salt. Use you're or the A.I mans judgement when selecting bulls.

Just my opinion!

Tora Bora

I have to say, I too have a problem understanding genetics.

Forget about AI. Take your own stock bull.

My current bull is a son of CF52, and overall is breeding well across my herd.
However, I have been really amazed at the variation which occurs form calf to calf form the same cow.
My best (looking) cow, and definitely my cow with most milk, has had four calves from this bull, all bull calves.
Two turned out as top drawer weanlings in terms of weight and conformation.
One was only very middeling, and one was to be frank a bit less than middleling.
I have an angus cow. Produced a poorish bull calf two years ago from this bull. Produced an outstanding heifer calf last year. Kept for breeding. This years calf looks good again.

My mate produced a show heifer calf from one of his limmy cows about six years ago, to an AI Belgian bull ( forget the name). Heifer won at various shows in Munster. Sold as weanling to a guy up the country for €2700:)

He has used the same bull a few times since on the same cow, and got only average calves each time. How do you account for these variations?

leg wax

well if we look at ourselves as humans or familys do we look a like how many familes have brothers that look alike and built the same as size and frame, and dont forget the daughters are they all the same they sure are not :rolleyes::rolleyes:, so how do we expect cows to do the same.a cow had a brill edj calf and a fecker of a giga calf oh what do i put on her now.

BeeDI

leg wax wrote: »

well if we look at ourselves as humans or familys do we look a like how many familes have brothers that look alike and built the same as size and frame, and dont forget the daughters are they all the same they sure are not :rolleyes::rolleyes:, so how do we expect cows to do the same.a cow had a brill edj calf and a fecker of a giga calf oh what do i put on her now.

Exactly the point. A good share of the star taring for bulls, is complete and utter "marketing" and "spin":(
Damn sure your average AI calf, will be better than your average stock bull calf 80% of the time.
But believing that a given AI bull, will consistently give you a very good result from a given cow is nonsense. It dont work that way. At least not for me.
As for believing that farmers in general are reliable and consistent at their record keeping and filling out the forms used to create the ICBF data base ................ you must be joking:P The "better farmers", show up at shows and marts, with calves and cattle that were tagged and registered when they were 4 / 5 months old ............... and we are expected to believe the reliability of the data these guys submit to the likes of ICBF:D