Performance Evaluations

02 October 2023

Before reading the trait descriptions, it's important to understand the goal of HerdLogic Objective Evaluations.
Evaluation occurs at multiple levels, so it's important to know what level you are looking at when using the evaluation for selection purposes.

Raw: is the observational data submitted by the producer. These values are not adjusted in any way.

Herd: is adjusted to account for in-herd differences. There are no comparisons across herd however tend to be more accurate for internal selection.

Breed: is adjusted to the breed, which builds on top of the in-herd adjustments to account for environmental differences across properties.

Purpose: is adjusted to the purpose like beef or dairy, which builds on top of the in-herd adjustments to account for environmental differences across properties.

Nb. The breed and purpose level evaluations run at the same level, we do not adjust for breed average differences, instead look for performance level regardless of breed.
Minimizing the number of adjustments we make is critical to improving the accuracy of the evaluation.

The primary objective of performance evaluations, is to acheive a reliable market based outcome. This means we tend to shy away from single trait selection in favor of three core objectives.

Objectives

Fertility is the number one profit driver for breeding operations. Acheiving a higher conception rate from the first cycle will almost always yield higher profits than looking for extra growth.

Market Specification heavily influences the performance evaluation system.
Single trait selection sets producers back in this area as breeders will often look to maximize single traits without pushing the interdependent traits to hit market specification.
Generally, the goal is to reduce the days to finish, which requires pushing growth while also managing the maturity pattern of the animal to make sure the condition and weight match the objective.

	Japan	EU	Domestic
HSCW (kg)	300-420	320-420	160-220
P8 fat depth (mm)	7-22	6-22	3-10
Butt/muscle shape score	A-C	A-C	A-C
Marbling score	-	-	> 0.5
Eye muscle area (cm²)	-	> 85	70
Retail meat yield (%)	-	-	70

Maintenance reflects the hardiness of the stock, this is again a big profit driver as ad-hoc maintenance events not only carry high costs for professional services & treatments, but also carry a labor cost which is often not accounted for in the balance sheet of agricultural businesses.

Performance Traits

Gestation Length (GL), represented in days, is the prediced average number of days for full term gestation.

Fertility (FE), represented in number of cycles, is the prediced average number of cycles for an animal to conceive.

Birth Assistance (BA), represented as a percentage, is the predicted chance that the animal will require assistance giving birth.

Birth Weight (BW), represented as kgs / lbs, is the predicted average birth weight.

Weaning Weight (WW), represented kgs / lbs, is the predicted average daily gain from birth to weaning age.
Cattle: 200 days

Post Weaning Weight (PW), represented kgs / lbs, is the predicted average daily gain from birth to post weaning age.
Cattle: 400 days

Finished Weight (FW), represented kgs / lbs, is the predicted average daily gain from birth to post finished age.
Cattle: 600 days (Planned reduction to 550 days in 2024)

Muscle Score (MS), A+ to E-, is the predicted average muscle score.

Fat Depth (FD), represented as mm / inches (mm/in), is the predicted average fat depth.

Intra Muscular Fat (IF), represeted as percentage (%), is the prediced average intramuscular fat percentage.

Eye Muscle (EM), represented as cm / inches (cm/in), is the predicted average size of the eye muscle.

Maintenance (MA), represented as percentage (%), is the predicted probability that a non scheduled intervention will be required.

Nb. The evaluation is a prediction based on user entered data, built in model weights, and assumptions. The input, weights, and assumptions will change over time alongside market demands.