{"id":19910,"date":"2026-05-02T12:38:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/?p=19910"},"modified":"2026-05-25T13:25:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:25:56","slug":"2026-a-across-breed-epd-table-improvements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/2026-a-across-breed-epd-table-improvements","title":{"rendered":"2026 A Across-Breed EPD Table & Improvements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Larry Kuehn, Bailey Engle and Warren Snelling.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Across-Breed EPD (ABEPD) Adjustment Factors: National Cattle Evaluation (NCE), and the resulting Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs), have resulted in substantial genetic change since their inception in the 1970s. However, EPDs are generally only comparable within breed because of differences in the genetic base. Since 1993, the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) has produced a table of factors to adjust the EPDs of cattle so that the merit of individuals can be compared across breeds. Adjustment factors for carcass traits have been calculated since 2009 and carcass weight was added in 2015; to be included, breeds must have carcass data in the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (USMARC) database and report their carcass EPDs on an actual carcass basis using an age-adjusted endpoint. Bulls of different breeds can be compared on the same EPD scale by adding the appropriate adjustment factor to the EPDs produced in the most recent genetic evaluations for each of the eighteen breeds.<\/p>\n

Normally, the EPDs of animals from different breeds cannot be compared because many breed associations compute their EPDs in separate analyses and each breed has a different base point. The across-breed adjustment factors allow producers to compare the EPDs for animals from different breeds for these traits; these factors reflect both the current breed difference (for animals born in 2024) and differences in the breed base point.<\/p>\n

The AB-EPDs are most useful to commercial producers purchasing bulls of more than one breed to use in cross-breeding programs. For example, in terminal cross-breeding systems, AB-EPDs can identify bulls in different breeds with similar growth potential or favorable carcass characteristics. The factors are derived by estimating breed differences from the USMARC germplasm evaluation program and adjusting these differences for the EPDs of the sires that were sampled in the system. Traits for which factors are estimated are birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, maternal weaning weight (milk), marbling score, ribeye area, backfat depth (fat), and carcass weight (Table 1). Th e factors adjust the EPDs to an Angus base (chosen arbitrarily).<\/p>\n

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As an example, suppose a Red Angus bull has a carcass weight EPD of + 20.0 lb and a Hereford bull has a carcass weight EPD of + 72.0 lb. The across-breed adjustment factors for carcass weight (see Table 1) are -3.8 lb for Red Angus and -68.2 lb for Hereford. The AB-EPD is 20.0 lb \u2013 3.8 lb = 16.2 lb for the Red Angus bull and 72.0 lb \u2013 68.2 = 3.8 lb for the Hereford bull. The expected carcass weight difference of off spring when both are mated to cows of another breed (e.g., Braunvieh) would be 16.2 lb \u2013 3.8 lb = 12.4 lb. Brahman EPDs for marbling score are reported on a different scale than the other breeds with marbling score EPDs.<\/p>\n

For Brahman 300 = Sl00 and 400 = Sm00 whereas for the other breeds, 4.00 = Sl00 and 5.00 = Sm00 meaning the Brahman EPDs are reported on a scale that is 100 times larger in magnitude in addition to a base shift. As a result, EPDs from other breeds need to be multiplied by 100 after being adjusted to Brahman, and Brahman EPDs need to be divided by 100 prior to applying the adjustment factors. For instance, to adjust a Simmental bull with a marbling score EPD of 0.15 to compare to Brahman bulls using the factors from Table 1, add the Simmental factor, subtract the Brahman factor, and then multiply by 100: ( 0.15 + ( -0.15 ) \u2013 ( -0.67 ) ) * 100 = 67.<\/p>\n

Similarly, to adjust a Brahman bull with a marbling score EPD of 40 to compare to Simmental bulls using the same factors, first divide by 100, then add the Brahman factor, and subtract the Simmental factor: 40 \/ 100 + ( -0.67 ) \u2013 ( -0.15 ) = -0.12. Please note that as of 2024, yearling weight EPD adjustment factors are derived using a BIF adjusted postweaning gain and weaning weight as separate traits which is consistent with most national cattle evaluations. Thus, these factors directly relate to EPDs from national cattle evaluations. It is important to note that the table factors (Table 1) do not represent a direct comparison among the different breeds because of base differences between the breeds.<\/p>\n

They should only be used to compare the EPDs (AB-EPDs) of animals in different breeds. To reduce confusion, breed of sire means (i.e., one half of full breed effect; breed of sire means predict differences when bulls from two different breeds are mated to cows of a third, unrelated breed) for animals born in 2024 under conditions similar to USMARC are presented in Table 2. The adjustment factors in Table 1 were updated using EPDs from the most recent national cattle evaluations conducted by each of the eighteen breed associations (current as of January 2026). The breed diff erences used to calculate the factors are based on comparisons of progeny of sires from each of these breeds in the Germplasm Evaluation Program at USMARC in Clay Center, Nebraska. These analyses were conducted by USMARC geneticists Larry Kuehn (email: Larry.Kuehn@usda.gov; ph: 402-762-4352), Bailey Engle (email: Bailey.Engle@usda.gov; ph: 402-762-4261), and Warren Snelling (email: Warren.Snelling@usda.gov).<\/p>\n

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AB-EPDs use adjustment factors to fairly compare genetic traits like carcass weight and marbling across cattle breeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4140,"featured_media":19915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19,23,21,9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brahman-news","8":"category-brahman-research","9":"category-industry-news","10":"category-current-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19910"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19916,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19910\/revisions\/19916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}