The THE program allows a member to participate at whichever level meets their needs as a purebred breeder. It is a cow-based program and the only requirement is that weights are reported. And if any weight (i.e. birth weight) is reported, then it must be reported on all calves, not just those that are registered. All traits (birth, weaning or yearling) are not mandatory. It is the comparison of calves given the same opportunity to perform that generate EPDs which can then be compared across herds.
T.H.E. PROGRAM
OVERVIEW
THE (Total Herd Evaluation) is a complete-herd reporting system to evaluate performance traits.
EPDs are run weekly & published every Monday. New data is extracted every Thursday night at 9:00 pm Calgary time. Depending on whether data is recorded before or after this cut-off, results will be included in new EPDs published 12-18 days later.
HOW IT WORKS
The cost is $7.00 per cow per year.
Then there are no additional charges to record birth weights, weaning weights, yearling weights or ultrasound data. EPDs are simply the best measure of genetic merit currently available in beef cattle.