Kilburnie Angus High Indexing Catalogue

A catalogue should provide you with useful in-

formation to help you make a rational decision

about your purchases.

Below is an example of the way in which we will

provide information to you about our 2018 sale

bulls. There are two important features that

we think will help you make better decisions.

The graph on the right hand side shows you

how the bull ranks in the breed. Indices are in

purple, calving ease in yellow, growth in green,

fertility in red. Docility and feed efficiency in

dark blue and carcase EBVs in light blue. You

can rapidly decide whether this bull ranks high-

ly in your estimate.

If you prefer numbers the rank is shown in the

boxes. M36 is in the top 45% of the breed for

calving ease. He is in the top 1% for DC (Days to

Calving) and the top 28% for marbling.

You cannot use the catalogue directly to com-

pare how these bulls compare with other sale

bulls that you might look at. BUT if you are pro-

vided with information on the ranks of those

other bulls you immediately have a compari-

son. If you are not provided with them auto-

matically by the vendor ask for them. Alterna-

tively take the bull by the horns and go and

look for yourself at the Angus Australia website

to get this information.

Also on the table below note that we have

highlighted the six important EBVs. We think

they are calving ease, 600 day weight, days to

calving, carcase weight, retail beef yield and

IMF%. They are the EBVs most heavily weighted

in the Indices.

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Kilburnie Angus High Indexing Angus Bulls

It is likely that in the reasonably near future premiums will be paid for cattle that marble at a young age. It

is also probable that there will be premiums for cattle that produce meat rather than fat or bone.

It is difficult to visually assess some of these attributes, particularly marbling. And it is even more difficult

to assess whether an animal will pass these attributes on to its progeny.

At Kilburnie our task is to use genetic tools, such as Breedplan and $indices, to provide you with the infor-

mation you need to identify the bulls that will help you achieve market premiums.

The most basic of these tools is the $indices which allow you to compare animals. An animal in the top 1%

of the breed on the appropriate index is more likely to make money for you than an animal in the top 5%

or, even worse, one in the top 50% of the breed.

When premiums are being paid for high performing animals, as they will be, there will be no rewards for

average animals.

The bulls we are selling are, on average, well into the top 10% and 5% of

the breed on the four indices. They are generally in the top 20% of the

breed for the important EBVs.

Pe

rcen

tile

Val

ue

ABI DOM HGN HGS CED 600 DTC RBY IMF

Kilburnie 2018 Sale Bull Average

20%

40%

50%

5%

INDICES EBVs

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G20 ABI DOM GRN GRS CE Dir 600 DTC RBY IMF

EBV 174 145 210 155 -5.3 153 -6.7 4.1 2.8

Perc 1 1 1 1 96 1 9 1 12

J136 ABI DOM GRN GRS CE Dir 600 DTC RBY IMF

EBV 158 135 179 147 3.0 122 -6.3 2.6 2.5

Perc 1 1 1 1 12 12 13 1 20

M208 ABI DOM GRN GRS CE Dir 600 DTC RBY IMF

EBV 156 138 169 147 1.9 125 -9.2 1.3 1.6

Perc 1 1 2 1 26 9 1 13 50

N2 ABI DOM GRN GRS CE Dir 600 DTC RBY IMF

EBV 138 128 145 134 6.4 118 -5.5 0.2 2.1

Perc 5 2 12 3 1 18 23 55 30

YOUNG AND OLD BULLS

Murray El Grando G20. Angus breeders have resolved

the antagonisms between low birthweight and high

growth rate and between marbling and muscling. They

found the few animals that had both attributes and bred

from them.

There is a perceived antagonism between leanness and

fertility. I am constantly being asked for bulls with high

fats because they are fertile but excess fat is wasteful if

you are selling meat.

Grando is in the top 1% of the Angus breed in Australia

for Retail Beef Yield and the bottom 99% of the breed

for fat. His DTC EBV is in the top 10% of the breed.

Murray Grando J136. This son of El Grando is out of a

much less extreme cow. The main improvement is that

he is a calving ease bull. El Grando is not.

J136 is an animal that carries very little fat but marbles

and is fertile. Grando has had carcase progeny measured

for IMF through the ASBP so I am reasonably sure that

these relations hold.

We are steadily working on the supposed fat/fertility

antagonism .

Two younger bulls.

M208 is by Pathfinder Genesis, a Berkley son. N2 is by a son of Bartel E7. M208 is currently being evaluated in the Angus

Sire Benchmarking Programme. N2 will be offered for sale in August. M208 is the bigger and taller Angus bull of the sort

that seems to be needed to meet the target weights particularly for the heavy grain fed market. N2 is a different style of

animal and visually is the more attractive of these two bulls

Kilburnie Angus High Indexing Angus Heifers

It is relatively easy to access semen from very high indexing bulls. It is much more difficult to access high indexing

cows. We have to breed our own.

In our program we retain a very high proportion of the heifers born in any year. We try to join a large proportion of

them naturally and allow them to calve out. The second joining and pregnancy is the important one for any heifer.

We mate all heifers naturally for their second pregnancy. They have to get pregnant to a bull—not by artificial in-

semination where drugs are

used which cause the heif-

ers to cycle even if they

would not do so naturally.

The diagram here shows

the average index values for

our sale bulls. The average

indices for our heifers are

almost the same. The green

bars are the index values for

the Kilburnie animals. The

blue bars are the fifth per-

centile for the breed, red

the twentieth percentile

and black the breed aver-

age.

With heifers of similar quali-

ty we can continue to pro-

duce very high indexing

bulls. KILBURNIE SALE BULLS 2018 BREED 5%, 20% AND 50%

ABI HGN HGS

160

120

DOM

AVERAGE INDEX VALUE OF SALE BULLS 2018

The bulls we are selling are, on average, well into the top 10% and 5% of the breed on

the four indices. They are generally in the top 20% of the breed for the important EBVs.

We are breeding heifers that are capable of producing bulls of this calibre and better into

the future.

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NURJ105 ABI DOM GRN GRS EBV 148 121 174 133

Perc 2 8 1 3

Cows that have stood the test of time

F4 ABI DOM GRN GRS

EBV 113 100 124 105

Perc 45 70 35 60

Murray Berkley F4. Rising 8 year old.

This Berkley daughter was one of the first cows born on Straban

after our relocation. In her prime she was one of our bigger cows

and she remains an attractive traditional Angus cow.

Mated to the right bull cows like this can still produce high per-

forming progeny with longevity from the mother’s side of the

pedigree.

To date she has had 11 calves. Her current heifer calf, Discovery

N25, is in the top 4% of the breed on all indices. She should be

one of the first cows to calve this year.

NURG81 ABI DOM GRN GRS

EBV 143 129 156 137

Perc 3 2 5 2

Murray Objective G81.

A daughter of SS Objective T510 0T26 who has performed very well

for us. She has 39 recorded calves. They include a very high index-

ing heifer, M171 by Bartel E7 and some very impressive male calves

by G20 on show today.

We knew that we had to increase frame and growth from cows

such as Berkley F4 above. 0T26 was a controversial bull at the time.

The mother of G81was a Lawsons bred cow by 1407 that we

bought from Tuwharetoa Angus.

Indices all in the top 5%. Mated to the right bull we have generated

some outstanding calves.

NURJ43 ABI DOM GRN GRS

EBV 135 120 152 125

Perc 8 10 7 12

Murray Wave J43.

We already have ten calves from this young cow. She has bred very

well.

Her mother is a very high indexing cow (VTMD113) that we bought

from Te Mania. Her father is an American bull, Gardens Wave, that

at the time of joining was one of the outstanding carcase bull in the

United States.

We sold her recently to The Rock Angus .

Murray Grando J105.

A daughter of El Grando out of a Regent daughter.

She has produced siix calves to date and more ET calves will be

coming over the next two years.

Her index values are very high. She retains the Grando mix of

leanness, marbling and a Days to Calving EBV in the top 2% of the

breed.

kilburnieangus.com.au Kilburnie Angus on Facebook David 0427 775 902 Andy 0457 025 399