OKABRA BRAHMANS currently have 23 bulls in our cow and heifer herds. So how do we actually make sure that our breeding goals are reached? Bulls are the main drivers in genetic change in your herd – we look at the total performance of all bulls to see where our breeding is heading.
We have genetics from Australia, USA and South Africa with an overall curve bender genetic trend – What does this mean? The average trait EBVs of all 23 bulls, reflect our selection goals (see EBV bar graph): low birth weights for easy birth and rapid, strong growth with a mature cow weight slightly below breed average to keep to medium framed, low maintenance females. The two fertility traits of scrotal size and days-to-calving are in the upper 20% of the breed, good carcase traits with exceptional fat EBVs, important for early maturing animals and marketing off the veld. Every young animal (male and female) is ultrasound scanned to determine carcase traits EBVs. Furthermore, also docile animals with a high feed/fodder efficiency as measured with a recently new net-feed-intake EBV. When it comes to profitability all three selection indices are in the upper 19% of the breed for this group of stud sires. All young animals undergo strict compulsory annual inspections by the breed society. In addition to this, each cow is annually assessed, based on visual appearance, body condition, navel, udder and temperament scores and last but not least on her retention and the profitability of her progeny, to make sure that we keep the best and breed what our customers want.
This bar chart depicts the average for each trait of all 23 OKABRA herd sires with 50% being the average of the national herd. All bars to the right indicate better performance than the national herd average (except for mature cow weight). These EBVs will have a profound influence on the genetic trend of the future OKABRA BRAHMANS herd.