What Does it Mean When There's a $ in Front of an EPD? What is a Selection Index?

Matthew Spangler (University of Nebraska - Lincoln): Oftentimes, beef breed associations represent their economic index values with a dollar sign. A prominent example is Angus's $beef. The dollar sign indicates that, in fact, it's an economic index. While we're thinking about $beef, that's very much a terminal-based index. So it would include things like growth and carcass merit and would be appropriate for producers who are selling their cattle through the feedlot phase on a branded beef program like Certified Angus Beef. However, that would not be an appropriate index to use if I'm actually retaining replacement heifers. In that case, an index that focuses on maternal traits, and certainly things like fertility, would be much more appropriate. So, when using indexes, it's important to understand the assumptions that go into them, the traits that go into them, and then use the ones that actually align with your own marketing objectives.