While there is no question that genomic testing of young sires can help in the process of identifying superior seedstock, it can be a tool to increase reliability. Genomic evaluation should not take the place of progeny evaluation as fitness traits of cattle cannot be estimated with extremely high variability. A previous merit would provide an accuracy of 40% – with genomics….that reliability can be increased to 60%. Gaining to 95% reliability still needs to be done with evaluation of progeny.
There are many promising young bulls – genomics can help to sell them…..One should not loose sight of what is proven. Examples of bulls with consistent and repeatable results that are unmatched with genomics are sires like Round Up, Ettal, Rurex and Waldhoer. There are bulls that prove to be more or less superior when used in crossbreeding.