High Plains
Well-known member
One thing a person needs to keep in mind about ratios is the fact that they do not compare all of the calves in one ranch's offering. If done by the book, calves from one pasture would be in a contemporary group separate from calves in another pasture. It doesn't matte if they were born the same day and weaned the same day, etc. The proper way to group them is to remove all environmental differences. If you send records on 100 bull calves to a breed association and let's say that they were managed the exact same all the way through, the records will still come back broken into some smaller contemporary groups. It can be difficult to understand why this is the case, but the breed associations have standard procedures that flag records to be broken into different groups. I sent in 60 bull calf records to an association for a recent project and the data came back with a bull in a group all by himself with regard to his yearling weight ratio. I'd have to look him up further to see what set him apart.
All I'm saying is that ratios are not comparing all animals from one ranch's offering against each other. A bull with a ratio of 120 may only be compared to 20 head when you're thinking that it's comparing to 200.
All I'm saying is that ratios are not comparing all animals from one ranch's offering against each other. A bull with a ratio of 120 may only be compared to 20 head when you're thinking that it's comparing to 200.
