Executive Summary
2018 NWSS & Annual Limousin
Convention Wrap-Up
By Mark Anderson, NALF executive director
Thank you and congratulations
to our exhibitors, consigners
and members who participated
at both the National Western
Stock Show and the Fort Worth
Livestock Show during the
month of January. The money
spent by our membership
to exhibit cattle, consign
quality lots to sales and attend
Limousin events is greatly
appreciated as we move the
breed forward and continue to
market and exhibit our cattle to
the rest of the industry. Quality
continues to improve each year
and is drawing attention to our
breed as we look to expand our
registrations and market the
high value of what Limousin
brings to the commercial
cattle industry throughout
the United States. Venues like
the NWSS remain a showcase
for breeders to market and
promote superior genetics. Your
efforts to breed and exhibit high
quality cattle helps promote
the advantages the utilizing
the Limousin breed to the
commercial cattle business.
Recapping the 2018 annual
meeting for those not in
attendance would include
some of the following major
changes for NALF in the 2016-
10 | MARCH 2018
2017 fiscal year. Among those
included were the following:
• Contractual work with
National Center for Beef
Excellence (NCBE).
• Genetic Consulting
now contracted through
NCBE with Tonya Amen.
• Layout of the Limousin
Today magazine is being
handled by NCBE.
• Website restructure was
finished and released on
the NALF website during
September of 2017.
• Convergence of publication
via both print and digital media.
• New DNA testing vendors
will be utilized at NALF.
• Upcoming release of BOLT
with test runs now being done.
NALF touched on the transition
to the BOLT for the National
Cattle Evaluation process
with IGS. Test runs are now
being made available for
analysis and committees will
get a chance to look under
the hood prior to release this
summer. The blending process
of MBV’s will be eliminated
through the BOLT single-step
transition and genomics will
be combined directly with
pedigree information and
performance date to calculate
more accurate EPDs.
The early test runs indicate the
outlier cattle will narrow with
less standard deviation on all
traits as BOLT gets released.
Test runs on the BOLT system
make more sense on the breed
comparison test where Limousin
looks to rank third on weight
trait data behind Simmental
and Gelbvieh. Birthweight will
drop on the new BOLT system
as well as milk, which has
been overstated in the Cornell
evaluation for Limousin. With
BOLT utilizing US Marc data
for carcass traits, Limousin
will experience an increase
back on ribeye and a slight
decline in marbling. Calving
ease will also slightly improve.
Accuracies will also decline
on average in the new BOLT
system, but those accuracies
will be more accurate of what
each animal’s true accuracy
is within the new method of
calculation for BOLT evaluations.
NALF reported registrations
have been basically flat the
last three years averaging
around 21,500 head annually.
Purebred cattle represent
56.5%, Lim-Flex 40.5% and
Fullblood cattle are currently