May 2026 – Updates to World Angus Evaluation
May 22, 2026, Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI), which is a subsidiary of the American Angus Association have made routine enhancements, and these updates will be implemented in the World Angus Evaluation (WAE).
- Annual update of the $Value indexes’ economic assumptionsbased on seven-year rolling averages.
- Biannual update of the genomic evaluation core ensuring the evaluation remains optimised and efficient while improving convergence across 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.
- Update of Genetic Evaluation Software reducing computing time required for World Angus Evaluation runs.
These updates do not cause any EPD changes as they are computational optimisations and do not alter data or methodology within the analysis.
- Annual update of Genomic Scores will be released on June 26.
As done in 2025, genomic score updates in 2026 will be decoupled from the WAE updates. Updates to genomic scores do not cause changes to EPDs.
In addition to these updates, the American Angus Associations’ online percentile tables, breed averages and trends will also be updated. For more details on these updates please read the AGI article – National Cattle Evaluation and Sire Evaluation Report Updates.
As a reminder, the sires included on the WAE search tool are updated quarterly (March, May, September, and December), but as data from all 3 countries flow into the analysis routinely, the EPDs of sires will be updated weekly.
The requirements for a sire to appear in the search facility are:
- Weaning weight BIF accuracy of at least 0.45
- 5 or more progeny with weaning weight records
- Have produced 2 or more calves included in the herd book in the last 2 years.
If you have any questions in regard to the updates, please contact the Angus Australia extension team at extension@angusaustralia.com.au
TO ACCESS THE WAE SEARCH TOOL
CLICK HERE
