For most, spring brings warmer weather and new life. For the Angus breed, it also marks the annual release of updates to the genetic evaluations. May 22, 2026, routine enhancements and updates will be implemented in the World Angus Evaluation (WAE). 

While this year’s updates do not introduce new traits or major model revisions, they do focus on maintaining the accuracy, stability and computational efficiency of the evaluation. Enhancements this year include updated economic assumptions for dollar value indexes ($Values), the biannual core update, genetic evaluation software update and an improved method to calculate genomic scores. 

$Values updates

Each year, the $Value indexes’ economic assumptions are updated using a seven-year rolling average of costs and revenues data, sourced from CattleFax. The seven-year rolling average is used to account for year-to-year fluctuations in the economic assumptions.  

For 2026, they are based on market data from 2019 to 2025. Ration cost; weaned calf price; and fed, dressed and delivered prices continue to increase, following the recent year’s trends.  Ration costs increased, from $237-247 per ton; while the weaned calf price per hundredweight (cwt.) increased from $203-234 for steers, and from $182-212 per cwt. for heifers.

The fed, dressed and delivered prices also increased from $221 per cwt. to $245 for steers and $244 for heifers. Emphasis from the supply chain continues to be on increased weights at weaning and finishing of cattle. With that, the days on feed also continue to trend upwards with an increase of four days for steers and heifers compared to last year’s rolling average. 

Core update

The 2026 updates also include the biannual update to the genomic evaluation core. The core update is a critical component of the single-step genomic BLUP (ssGBLUP) method, specifically related to the computation of the inverse of the genomic relationship matrix (GRM), required for expected progeny difference (EPD) calculation. 

This is the third time this routine update will be done, following 2021 and 2024. More technical details about the methodology and the update can be found in the “The Evaluation Machine” article in the May 2021 By The Numbers column. 

Since the last update in 2024, the number of genotyped animals in the WAE has continued to grow rapidly — an additional 400,000 samples in two years — now surpassing 2.4 million in total. This 2026 update ensures an optimized and efficient evaluation while improving convergence across models (meaning the EPD calculations are completed faster and efficiently). Simply, the core update allows the genetic evaluations to remain scalable and to continue being delivered each Friday morning. 

During the Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI) research phase, computing time was reduced, ranging from 15-30% across WAE models. Correlations between EPDs generated before and after the update were greater than 0.99, indicating strong EPD stability. Some individual animals, particularly younger sires with lower accuracy, or those with large numbers of newly genotyped progeny may experience more noticeable changes. But only minor reranking occurred across all animals in the breed.  

Genetic evaluation software update

Predicting EPDs for tens of millions of animals weekly requires great computational resources and software. The AGI team works closely with the University of Georgia (UGA) on research, software development and optimization for large-scale genetic evaluations to ensure a stable and timely delivery of weekly genetic evaluations. 

The UGA team releases periodic updates that often include important optimizations; and this year, after extensive testing, the software used in the WAE will be updated. After our research, the AGI team confirmed these updates do not cause EPD changes as they are computational optimizations and not data or methodology changes. 

Annual genomic scores update

As done in 2025, genomic score updates in 2026 will be decoupled from the WAE updates. This year genomic score updates will be released on June 26. Updates to genomic scores do not cause changes to EPDs.

The annual genomic score updates include the re-estimation of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) effects using the most recent phenotypes and genotypes. This re-estimation is a routine enhancement for genomic scores. In 2026, an updated methodology developed by the team at UGA will also be implemented. 

The method involves a more appropriate statistical derivation of the formulas and algorithms — how the model calculates genomic scores — and will provide more stable SNP effect solutions and results. 

For this year’s update, lower than usual correlations, and more changes in the genomic score ranking are expected. It is important to remember the genomic scores do not affect EPDs, and that animals’ scores are ranked among the genotyped population only. This is different than the published EPD percentile tables, and thus not comparable. While the scores can be useful in some cases, the EPDs are always the most accurate and preferred tool for selection. 

The May 2026 updates represent another step forward in maintaining a robust, accurate and efficient delivery of genetic evaluations for the Angus breed. From economic assumptions to software and methodology updates, these enhancements provide breeders with the most current, data-driven tools available, ensuring long-term genetic progress, productivity and profitability across the breed.