Total Herd Reporting (THR)

The Brangus® Total Herd Reporting (THR) system is designed to improve the collection of performance information on all active animals in the breed and to equally spread the costs of promoting the breed across all active animals in the breed. Rather than the traditional calf-based registration fee structure that discourages the reporting of complete contemporary group information, THR uses an inventory-based fee structure or annual assessment charged on all reproductively mature animals. THR requires the reporting of annual production and performance records on all cattle within a herd, but the responsibility of selecting which calves are worthy of registration remains with the breeder.

Under THR members will pay a single, annual assessment on each animal of 'assessment age', which includes females 24 months or older and bulls 30 months or older on the July 1st assessment date. Payment of the annual assessment on a cow entitles the cow owner (breeder) to register one calf born to the cow during that 12-month period and a single transfer of that calf to a new owner if the transfer occurs before the animal reaches 24 months of age if a female or 30 months of age if a male. Payment of the annual assessment on a bull allows for the subsequent registration of calves sired by the bull during that year of service, provided all other registration requirements have been met.

Major benefits of THR include:

• Simplicity; one fee covers the most common breeder expenses, rather than multiple fees for routine transactions.
  Quality; complete reporting will improve the reliability of EPDs on all IBBA cattle by removing the effects of
  reporting bias.
• Improved customer service; no extra fee for calf transfers will ensure more complete reporting of transfers.
  Improved identification of bull owners increases the likelihood of participation in commercial marketing
  programs which will improve demand for IBBA seedstock.
• New selection tools; Total Herd Reporting will make it possible to estimate fertility and survivability EPDs and to
  calculate herd-average reproduction and production management measures for within herd use. These
  calculations are meaningless with incomplete reporting.

Total Herd Reporting Annual Schedule