The Braunvieh Association of America breeders can now benefit from a multi-breed residual feed intake (RFI) EPD through collaboration with GrowSafe Systems®. The GrowSafe database consists of 235,394 individual animals across 24 different breeds and growing.
“As an association, we are excited to introduce the RFI EPD as a tool to benefit our members and the beef industry,” said Caleb Russell, BAA president. “Braunvieh is an inherently efficient breed, but this innovative EPD will allow our members to measure their cattle’s efficiency and capitalize on it.”
Braunvieh Association of America breeders can take full advantage of the benefits of the Beef Genetics Program by GrowSafe. In addition to the standardized RFI EPD that compares cattle across breeds, breeders will be able to use the data provided by GrowSafe to select for feed efficient cattle. Feed efficient cattle can improve the feed efficiency of a herd up to 12 percent,* reduce manure and methane production** and, ultimately, improve the bottom line of those herds.
“Studies on RFI show that when you select for a lower RFI number on an animal, you can lower the feed cost through the lifetime of that animal,” said Mark Nelson, GrowSafe Systems director of industry relations. “If a producer selects for efficiency using the RFI efficiency EPD, that is the most valuable tool they have to move their herd forward.”
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*Selecting for Low RFI cattle reduces overall feed intake by up to 12% while maintaining the same level of production.
**Selecting for low RFI cattle reduces manure NPK production up to 17% and greenhouse gas emissions such as methane, up to 30%.