Carcass quality is a major economic driver in the beef industry. Commercial producers can leverage genetic selection tools to make improvements in carcass traits, which can increase profits for their herd. 

The expected progeny differences (EPDs) for carcass include carcass weight (CW), marbling (Marb), ribeye area (RE) and fat thickness (FAT). The phenotypes included in the calculation of these EPDs are carcass data collected at harvest and carcass ultrasound data. The genetic correlations between actual carcass data and carcass ultrasound measurements range from 0.65 to 0.71. This relationship allows carcass ultrasound data on live animals to be used as an indicator for carcass traits; however, actual carcass records are still needed for accurate predictions. 

Structured sire program

The Structured Sire Evaluation is an Angus Herd Improvement Records (AHIR^®) program that focuses on carcass data collection. While most carcass data is submitted by individual breeders, the purpose of this program is to collect carcass data on widely used sires in the Angus population that have little to no actual carcass data in the weekly evaluation. 

To be eligible for the program, a sire would have been included in the top 300 registration sires the previous fiscal year, proven for growth traits, and have carcass ultrasound progeny records reported. In the fall of 2021, the option for members to nominate test sires was added to the program. 

Commercial cooperator herds will select test sires to use in their herd from the list of potential bulls provided by the Association. They also select from a list of proven reference sires. Reference sires are bulls who have progeny with carcass records in the database resulting in high-accuracy carcass EPDs. Comparing unproven sires to reference sires strengthens the link between the new records and those that already exist in the database.