Weaber Livestock

What is the difference between price and value? This is no small question. I have had countless times in my life where I chose the lower cost option and quick...ly found out that even at a lower price, the value was even less than the price. Price did not reflect value. This can be true for high priced items and services as well. So why am I writing about price and value? To say it plainly, the value of ultrasound is vastly underestimated by most in today's world. While genomics grabs headlines, ultrasound is doing the grunt work. My evidence is pretty hard to argue. Since 2008, the amount of cattle gradiing prime and choice has increased steadily year after year. While there have been plenty folks that have postulated the reasons why, the most obvious reason is because of ultrasound! EPDs for carcass traits using ultrasound have been around since 2001. While we didn't see the change immediately, roughly one generation interval (6 or so years) after adoption, we saw the beginning of a decade long run of year over year increases. Reports of 10% Prime carcasses would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. I like to think of ultrasound data on purebred cattle as a leading indicator. It is the future for commercial herds and feedlots. It is the basis for genomic testing. It also is the basis for gene discovery. Don't misunderstand, genomic tests have value, but without ultrasound phenotypes, they lose accuracy very quickly. Without scan data, the cutting edge breeders cannot find the outliers that will lead us to the next level. The value of scanning is doubled or tripled when replacement heifers are scanned as opposed to only scanning bulls. Describing the heifers that need to be culled as well as those that may be candidates for the donor pen, are equally important. Adding accuracy to carcass EPDs for your entire cow herd, as opposed to just the half that have bull calves is important as well. Knowledge is power! And as the old saying goes, you cannot improve what you do not measure. The CUP Lab takes great pride in being a value leader when it comes to our services. Accurately describing your cattle and their carcass traits is our passion and our mission. Our proprietary software was designed to have the highest correlations to carcass IMF and to distribute them more reflective of actual carcass data. That is a value for folks that chose the CUP Lab. Feel free to contact us to discuss how the CUP Lab can maximize the value of your scanning investment.

For 18 years we have seen the number of bulls scanned exceed the number of heifers. While I understand folks scanning bulls, I cannot understand skipping their... heifers. I get plenty of responses when I ask why: we don't feed our heifers like our bulls, we just need the bull data for a sale, the timing doesn't work out, or it costs too much. While I can see that some of those might sound reasonable, let me give you reasons why you absolutely need to scan your heifers. 1. They are the future of your cow herd. Scanning data is valuable for your own selection. Dramatic progress can be made in any trait, but especially carcass by dropping off the bottom end. 2. They are another high quality contemporary group that improves EPD accuracies for all your dams and sires. 3. Heifer data, even if they are not pushed, generally shows more IMF variation than your bulls. We consistently see more variation in heifer data vs. bull data within the same herd. 4. With Single Step genetic evaluations, scan data (or any phenotype) leads to discovery of new markers/genes for traits. Without a phenotype (carcass or scan data) your animals are left out of gene discovery in genomic tests. Feel free to contact the CUP Lab(R), LLC to inquire about scanning and how it plays a critical roll in your carcass trait improvement.

We are pleased to announce that Andy Weaber of Weaber Livestock will be joining us again this year on Saturday, May 5 to scan heifers and steers for Virtual Carcass. There will be no cost to participants with the option to sign up before or the day of!

Scanning heifers is the fastest way to improve carcass traits in your herd. While we concentrate on selecting he right bulls to push the top end, use ultrasound to pull the poorer females off the bottom. The results in just a few years will astound you.

We are happy to announce UGC has approved three new hardware systems with increased accuracy for capturing carcass ultrasound traits at The CUP Lab! Read all about it here: https://www.cuplab.com//New%20Hardware%20Models%20PR%20022