In the past month, TWO of the five largest Canadian breed associations have announced that they have spilt off from their American counterparts to run their own seperate genetic evaluations (EPDs).

Why is the Canadian seedstock industry moving backward instead of forward?

I would sincerely like to know what these associations see as the long-term benefits of having Canadian-only EPDs are. For one, it's expensive and the Canadian breed association are not flush with cash at this point in time. Secondly, they destroyed their U.S. export market -- Americans will not buy cattle whose EPDs are not directly comparable to their own. Finally, it's hard to make genetic pregress when you are going backwards with your evaluation.

At a time when our industry should be moving toward increased collaboration, it's exasperating to see two boards cut their associations off from their partners on something as crucial as genetic evaluation.