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EPDs are one of several criteria used in the bull selection process.
Generally at the JHL all extremes are discounted and correlations are
looked for between EPDs and supporting data (i.e. ultrasound). A concern
with EPDs is that they may be "forcing" seedstock suppliers to
continue to generate higher and higher performance traits in order to
separate themselves from their competitors. At some point this will
compromise the sustainability of the animal. We believe that heterosis
should be the natural way of achieving higher performance.
Another
concern with EPDs is their mathematical development. They present an
average, sometimes a mean or median. We have not found any EPDs developed
from a standard deviation. As long as our segment of the industry depends
on an average, how can we expect the packers to pay on anything other than
the average?  The implications of the
differences are significant to the industry. An admittedly simplified
analogy of the differences between these mathematical methods would be using
a shotgun (widely scattered with a middle to the shot pattern but no idea
how far out are the extremes- EPDs). If a standard deviation was used it
would be more like a rifle grouping. A real time application of standard
deviation EPDs would better show which sire has a tighter grouping of
progeny.
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