(THE) – Summarized

Background

At the 32^nd Annual General Meeting of the Canadian Simmental Association, 80% of the membership present voted in favour of a voluntary Total Herd Enrollment (THE) program. THE focuses on one of the Simmental breed’s greatest strengths: the Simmental female.

Under the reporting system that was in effect in 2000, Simmental female traits (such as fertility) could not be measured since the system was incapable of recognizing the difference between cows that did not conceive and cows that did not produce a calf worthy of registration; and likewise, between calves that were never born and those whose birth was simply not reported. The key to making these determinations is complete reporting using cow and calf disposal codes. The use of such codes may even allow for estimates of genetic merit for survivability, longevity, efficiency, lifetime productivity, or some combination thereof.

It is clear that a calf-based fee structure is at odds with complete reporting, as it provides a disincentive to submit data on marginal calves not intended to be registered. The irony is that it is much more important to a maternal breed to learn about the marginal calves, or the lack of calves, than it is to learn about the ringers.

A cow-based fee structure is important to a maternal breed, as it puts the onus on the female to produce a quality calf every year rather than putting the entire responsibility on the calf. This helps to reduce the "emotional" ties that breeders develop with their cow herd that convince them to "keep her around for another year". It is too easy to get rid of the calf.

If we are to maintain our current industry position as the leading maternal breed, we MUST be able to objectively demonstrate the Simmental female’s strengths. The traits required to do so cannot be reliably estimated without complete data.

Another benefit of Total Herd Enrollment is the elimination of reporting biases from performance records, especially EPDs. The table below illustrates the effect of selective A/B/C reporting on the well-known indexing system. The effect on EPDs is strikingly similar.

When only the top 3 calves are reported, the ratios (and EPDs) are negatively affected for ALL calves. This is because the average of the reported contemporary group is higher than it would have been had all calves been reported. Since the ratio calculation subtracts off the contemporary group average from each record, and since the average of the incompletely reported group is higher, the ratios underestimate the value of all calves that were reported. Incomplete reporting has a similar effect on EPDs: because the EPD calculation uses information from all relatives of the calves in this contemporary group, all animals in the analysis are adversely affected. In summary, the primary genetic advantages of "THE" include:

• Ability to assess fertility and reproductive traits of cow families.
• Enhanced genetic information due to reporting of all offspring.

Following is a comparison between the cost of registering & transferring calves under THE rates and non-enrollment rates.

For example, you have 30 females to register in the "THE" program.

Based upon this particular example, a member who has not enrolled his females in "THE" would have to pay, for that year, an extra $234.00 (plus GST) compared to a member who has enrolled his females in the program.

WHAT DOES T.H.E. MEAN TO SIMMENTAL BREEDERS?

Besides access to potentially new production data and more accurate data, producers benefit from the predictability of expenses, simplicity of transactions, and fee payments. As well, all breeders truly participate in funding their association based on the amount of services they acquire. Most importantly, all association members receive greater value for their dollar. For example, free first transfers promote the development of an accurate inventory of customers, thus increasing the effectiveness of the association’s marketing activities. It also encourages a greater flow of information through the beef production chain.

Besides being able to better serve its members through new production data and enhanced marketing efforts, the association also benefits from a greater degree of predictability in revenues. As well, an accurate and up-to-date breed inventory allows the association to better identify the baseline genetics in Canada, thus enhancing breed improvement activities.

The number of registrations processed by a breed association should not measure the quality of its breed. Quality should be measured based on a breed’s genetic merit in the industry. Rather than concentrating on how many members or registrations were processed (which is the nature of a transaction-based fee structure), the association can concentrate on encouraging the enrollment of females and measuring the genetic merit of the cattle population. These go hand-in-hand, as the better we demonstrate the maternal merit of the Simmental breed, the easier it will be to encourage its use and enrollment.

TOTAL HERD ENROLLMENT "THE" DETAILS

Under Total Herd Enrollment "THE", members will pay a single annual assessment fee for each "assessment age" female that is enrolled prior to the deadline of  December 15, 2002 ($20.00 plus GST/cow).  Note 1:  Any female(s) enrolled from December 16, 2002 - February 15, 2003 will be subject to a Late Penalty Fee ($5.00 plus GST/cow).  Note 2:  The cost to enroll after February 15th will be $38.00 (plus GST/cow).

• Females purchased from a "THE" enrolled herd will be transferred, based on the assessment fee paid by the previous owner. ¹
  
  
• Females purchased from a non-enrolled herd, will be transferred based on the previous owner’s payment of the non-enrollment transfer fee ($15.00 plus GST).
  
  
• If a female was deactivated in a previous year and is to be reactivated, the reactivation fee will be the sum of the number of years she was inactive plus $50. (i.e. If female was inactive for 3 years, cost would be: $21.40 x 3 yrs + $50.00 = $114.20) Additionally, complete calving and breeding information will be required for the inactive period.
  
  
• Fall calving females will have to be enrolled at herd enrollment time.
  
  
• If multiple calves are born to enrolled females, they will be registered at the herd assessment fee, provided they are all raised by their dams.
  
  
• Two transfers per enrolled female will be allowed: the first calf born to the enrolled female regardless of year the calf is transferred and that of the enrolled female herself per year. Twins etc will be assessed a transfer fee
  
  
• If any first-calf females are culled following enrollment, members will receive a full credit of their enrollment fee per culled female at the end of the calendar year (by next inventory report). Such culled first-calf heifers are not eligible to re-enter the program and complete disposal information is required prior to receiving credit.
  
  
• For a female to be active in your herd inventory you must supply calving or reproductive status each year, including those years she did not calve.

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DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING

During each 12-month period, the following information MUST be received for each cow on inventory:

1) Breeding date – observed date, AI date or natural exposure.

2) Calf record :

• Birth weight (optional). If actual birth weight is not provided, the current breed average will be used for all performance calculations.
• Calving ease score.
• Tattoo, birth date, sex of calf, colour (if black or grey), horned/polled.
• Weaning weight and date.
• Yearling weight and date (required for all animals retained in the herd).

3) Reproductive status/disposal code. If a calf dies before weaning, the breeder is only required to provide the appropriate calf disposal code plus sire information, calf tattoo, calf sex, birth date, calving ease and birth weight, if taken. If a calf is culled at weaning, it must be entered on the herd inventory form and disposed using the appropriate disposal code.

4) Commercial herds – Performance information will be accepted for calves sired by registered Simmental bulls. A performance fee of $2.50 plus GST per calf will be collected for this service.

5) Enrolled Purebred Simmental cows bred to other breeds will be issued performance information on their offspring. These animals’ calves are not eligible for registration in the CSA Herdbook.

Please refer to Non-Enrollment fees, listed on your Fee Schedule (161170 bytes)

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