Western Downs sire sets breed record for eye muscle area EBV in Australia
A Western Downs bull has achieved the highest eye muscle area estimated breeding value ever recorded in the nation's Angus herdbook register.
The 22-month-old NB Genetics Ukich U897 recorded an EBV EMA of +24.6 for breeders Nick and Kate Boshammer, based outside of Chinchilla.
Ukich descends from the Flower maternal line and is sired by GAR Home Town.
While NB Genetics stud principal Nick Boshammer acknowledged that this record would likely be surpassed in the future, he believed it reflected the ongoing commitment of seedstock producers to continually improve their programs.
"We recognise that this record will be surpassed, and we're not necessarily focused on continually pushing boundaries for the sake of it," Mr Boshammer said.
"Ukich is a bull developed through our regular program where they are born on forest/light country and weaned onto softer soils, but remain on grass throughout winter even as the feed value naturally drops.
"At this point, Ukich was performance tested and ranked in the top 5 per cent of his contemporary group of 95 head, validating his high accuracy data as an elite sire.
"This means he's expected to consistently pass on superior muscling and carcase traits to his offspring, setting a new benchmark for Angus breeders."
Mr Boshammer said their previous best EMA EBV was 15.5, which was also within the top 1pc of the breed.
Now, Ukich has taken that benchmark to another level, exceeding it by nearly 60pc.
"That kind of advancement in one generation is rare, and we're proud of what it represents: not just a genetic outlier, but a meaningful step forward in profitable, sustainable beef production," he said.
"In our opinion, EBVs are not the be-all and end-all, however our experience in commercial operations has shown that high accuracy data on heritable traits is a great tool to achieve certain goals.
"EMA is highly heritable and correlated to carcass weight and yield (particularly the high value section) and weight is our customers last point of sale.
"If we can significantly increase on-farm profit margins without rising input costs when we make genetic selections, it's a monumental win to have a bull that can have this amount of progeny impact in one generation."
Mr Boshammer said as food producers, they're constantly looking at ways to improve production.
"Our role is to continually seek ways to improve efficiency, quality, and the sustainability of natural food production," he said.
"In doing so, we fulfil a fundamental responsibility to produce more high-quality food using fewer resources, and to deliver value right through the supply chain.
"To have bred a bull with the highest EMA EBV ever recorded in the Angus Australia Herd Book Register is a major step toward those goals."
