UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- A sire-selection workshop for cattle breeders will be held at the Pennsylvania Cattleman's College, March 10 at the Pennsylvania Livestock Evaluation Center. The facility is on Route 45, about 9 miles southwest of the Penn State University Park campus, near the Ag Progress Days site at Rock Springs.
Cattle breeders have an enormous amount of information available to them to help make sire selections, noted John Comerford, Penn State beef specialist and conference coordinator. Sometimes the numbers can be overwhelming.
"We need to sort out the numbers we can use, though, because sire selection is a singularly important investment in the cow-calf enterprise," he said. "The workshop will cover how to evaluate the genetic- and molecular-prediction information, use visual traits, and find the right bull in a crossbreeding program.
"For a herd that is retaining all of the female replacements, we can show that over 90 percent of the genetics in the herd will come from the sires that are selected in just seven generations, so it is very important to make accurate and effective sire selections."
The Cattleman's College also will offer information for cattle breeders on topics such as animal health, feeder-calf marketing, reproduction and beef-quality-assurance recertification. The program is sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health, the Pennsylvania Cattleman's Association and Penn State Extension.
A complete program and registration information is available online at http://www.das.psu.edu/research-extension/beef, or by contacting Comerford at 814-863-3661 or by email at jxc16@psu.edu.