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Visualizing Insights from Southern Bull Test and Heifer Development Program

Ivy Mackereth, Siddhartha Bora, Evan Wilson, and Doolarie Singh-Knights

Summary

Over the last 30-plus years, the Southern Bull Test and Heifer Development Program has served cattle producers of West Virginia and the Mid-Ohio Valley by providing seedstock evaluations. The program collects detailed data on bulls and heifers from participating farms, such as birth weights, average daily gains, and Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs). However, these records remain underused for comparative longitudinal and spatial analysis.

We create a set of interactive dashboards using Python libraries, Plotly and Dash, to convert these records into informative tools for stakeholders. The objective is to facilitate comparisons of performance for different breeds and farms, for high-performing animals, and for variables related to variation in sale prices. Flow maps illustrate the locations of buyers, as well as the distances traveled to the annual March sale, to demonstrate the market extension achieved through the program.

By combining statistical summaries with interactive graphics, the dashboards give producers, Extension educators, and other stakeholders an easier way to explore program results. The interactive visualizations also facilitate active stakeholder engagement and support more informed breeding, risk management, and marketing decisions. Overall, the visualizations also demonstrate the program’s long-term contributions to the region’s cattle industry. Furthermore, our open-source code repository provides a scalable way to replicate the approach to similar cattle improvement programs across the United States.

Details

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