Cut Through Genetic Confusion With Kelli Retallick-Riley
Why using only genetics or phenotypes alone in selection is leaving money on the table.
January 7, 2026
A lot of commercial cattlemen have told us they chose Angus because of the breed’s marketability. There’s more benefit to Angus than just premium prices, though — the genetic database and the multitude of tools available to seedstock and commercial cattlemen alike.
On this episode of the Angus at Work podcast, the Angus Beef Bulletin team visited with Kelli Retallick-Riley, president of Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI), regarding how to decide which of the many genetic tools to use, what questions you should ask your seedstock supplier, why expected progeny differences (EPDs) matter, new tools available for commercial cattlemen and more.
Changing the game
An old adage says you can’t make progress on things that you don’t measure. When it comes to producers utilizing registered Angus genetics, the availability of data is seemingly endless. While it may seem to some like Angus cattle have always come with numbers, that hasn’t always been the case.
“I think early on, when it was the Aberdeen Angus Association, a lot of our individual selection for sires was based on the Chicago International or in the show ring. How did those animals look? They used eye appeal and conformation from that standpoint to make decisions,” notes Retallick-Riley. “Then we went through the ’50s and the ’60s and then up into 1972. That’s when our first structured Sire Evaluation Report came out. We had 25 bulls in there and every one was pictured. It was beautiful. I bring [the report] up because that was really a turning point for the American Angus Association and the commercial cow-calf industry.”
With the release of the sire evaluation, says Retallick-Riley, producers got away from the idea of making breeding decisions based solely on show-ring performance. Instead, data and performance began setting the scene for future matings.
Retallick-Riley oftentimes gets the question, “Well, I’m selecting these bulls on performance measurements.” The reality, she says, is that with EPDs and national cattle evaluations, producers are better able to avoid genetic train wrecks by looking behind the curtain (and under the hide).
“We have higher degree of accuracy [using genomics],” Retallick-Riley says. “It allows us to move along genetic change a lot quicker when we can basically use this big engine to get at purely that genetic component versus the environment.”
A multiprong approach
While the genetic tools, EPDs, the dollar value indexes ($Values), and genomic scores offer immense value for cattlemen, Retallick-Riley says we can’t forget the conformation of an individual animal. Traits like foot and udder scores play a major role in the overall longevity of your investment.
Her advice to producers: Use the resources available to evaluate the data, but — at the end of the day — get to that sale.
“Get eyes on that bull and make sure that he’s going to be able to fit your own individual scenario,” she says. “If you get there and a bull’s got a wicked set of EPDs, but you’re starting to see there’s some structure issues, then maybe you don’t want to move in that direction.”
Cattle have got to be built from the ground up, so making sure they’re structurally sound is important, she says.
When it comes to breeding goals, Retallick-Riley encourages producers to consider their market and their breeding objectives when trying to determine which tools to use.
“How is [a producer] going to sell calves? That is how you build your breeding objective. If you’re not building cattle that fit your program to generate income … then you’re probably not going to be all that successful,” she says, noting that with 22 different EPDs and eight different indexes, producers have options. “Defining those goals and understanding where you’re at and where you need to go is really important.”
“I think we always use the old adage — and I always hate to use it — but you can’t make progress on things that you don’t measure. So when we think about genetics, that’s really all we’re trying to do.” — Kelli Retallick-Riley
The power of data
All these data — and the insight they provide — may sound great to a producer. However, once traits of importance are identified, that doesn’t mean learning about additional traits is off the table. At the time of recording (January 2023), cattlemen were a few years into having access to the pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) EPD, as well as the hair shed EPD.
Both EPDs were developed with the mindset of trying to adapt or select cattle to suit different environments more seamlessly.
“The PAP EPD is for those cattle that are dealing with things like brisket disease or high-altitude disease in those types of environments. The hair shed EPD [is meant] to help our producers that are running in fescue country and have to deal with things like fescue toxicosis or just really hot environments where they [need] a … higher level of heat tolerance,” Retallick-Riley says. “At AGI and at the American Angus Association, we talk a lot about matching cattle to their environments. Those two specific EPDs are really trying to match cattle to environments where they may be handling [unique] environmental or disease pressures.”
“Your optimum may be different than my optimum. So you have to be able to try to manage those cattle with your feed resources and your land resources, with the things that you have available to you.” — Kelli Retallick-Riley
While the PAP and hair shed EPDs are undoubtedly useful to cattlemen in their respective regions, Retallick-Riley was excited to discuss an EPD that has the potential to affect a large swath of producers: functional longevity.
The functional longevity EPD was developed to predict — at an early age — which sires are going to create daughters that stay in the herd and consistently calve year after year. Understanding if a cow calves each year is part of the equation, but researchers also need to know how old the female is, her pregnancy status, how long she was open and more, says Retallick-Riley.
“Why and when do those cows leave the herd? Those types of records help us to be able to predict, ‘OK, this sire does a better job at creating females that can stay in the herd for a long time,’” she says. “Obviously, that has an economic impact on our commercial cattlemen, because if we’re culling too many females — especially early on in life — that can be a huge detriment to your bottom line as a commercial cow-calf producer.”
Editor’s note: The information above is summarized from the Jan. 4, 2023, episode of Angus at Work. To access the full episode, including more information related the genomic tools and AGI, check out our Angus at Work archive on www.angus.org. [Lead photo by Lynsey McAnally.]
Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA, Vol. 18, No. 1-A
Topics: EPDs , Management , Selection , Sire Evaluation
Publication: Angus Beef Bulletin
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