www.NALF.org

North American
   Limousin Foundation
Suite 100
7383 S. Alton Way
Centennial, CO  80112

(303) 220-1693
fax: (303) 220-1884

NALF Line
April 2007

Understanding Registration Classifications
By Lauren Hyde, Ph.D., director of performance programs

 
With an increasing number of Limousin breeders producing Lim‑Flex® and percentage seedstock, it is becoming more important for North American Limousin Foundation (NALF) members to know the ins and outs of the association’s registration-classification system. Determining whether an animal is fullblood, purebred, percentage or Lim‑Flex and whether it receives an orange or a purple registration certificate is not simply a matter of counting the L’s in its breed code. It requires a thorough understanding of “NALF percent” versus “actual percent” Limousin.

 
NALF Percent Limousin

“NALF percent Limousin” forms the basis of an animal’s registration classification. NALF’s early leaders developed it as a way to escalate the number of registered purebred Limousin cattle descended from French and Canadian imported bulls and non-Limousin commercial cows. Fundamental to the definition of “NALF percent Limousin” is that NALF considers bulls with a NALF percent of 93 and higher and cows with a NALF percent of 87 and higher as purebred (or fullblood if they have no percentage cattle in their pedigrees). If their NALF percent is 93 or more, NALF considers them as 100 percent Limousin when calculating their offspring’s percent Limousin.

The procedure for computing an animal’s NALF percent Limousin follows:

1. If the sire or dam has a NALF percent of 93 or higher, NALF considers it 100 percent Limousin.
2. If the sire or dam is not a registered Limousin animal, NALF considers it zero Limousin.
3. NALF adds the sire’s and dam’s NALF percentages and divides the sum by 2.
4. NALF truncates the result to the next-lowest whole number (for example, 87.5 becomes 87).

NALF assigns an animal’s registration prefix according to its computed NALF percent using the guidelines in the table.

 
Actual Percent Limousin

“Actual percent Limousin” reflects an animal’s true percentage of Limousin blood because the actual breed percentages of its earliest known ancestors derive it. You compute it by adding the sire’s and dam’s actual percentages, dividing by 2 and rounding the result to the nearest tenth (for example, 87.54 becomes 87.5 and 87.55 becomes 87.6).

Although NALF does not use actual percent Limousin for registration purposes, the Canadian Limousin Association (CLA) uses it when importing NALF animals into its herdbook. In addition, NALF stores actual Limousin percentages in its database, along with the actual percentages of Angus and Red Angus blood when determining if an animal is eligible for registration as Lim‑Flex.

The major difference between the two definitions of “percent Limousin” is that, for many animals (other than fullbloods, who always have NALF and actual percentages equal to 100 by definition), the NALF percentage is higher than the actual. The following example illustrates that difference.

Suppose a bull with both NALF and actual percentages of 93 breeds a cow with both NALF and actual percentages of 93. You calculate the offspring’s actual percent Limousin as follows: (93 + 93) ÷ 2 = 93. To compute the offspring’s NALF percent Limousin, consider both parents as 100 percent Limousin because both have NALF percentages that are at least 93. Thus, you calculate the offspring’s NALF percent Limousin as follows: (100 + 100) ÷ 2 = 100, which is 7 percentage points higher than its actual percent.

Although the difference between the two types of “percent Limousin” have no effect on an animal’s registration classification, it is important to know that using actual percentages is preferred over NALF percentages for improved management of crossbreeding systems, more effective use of heterosis and greater uniformity among crossbred calves. Whether NALF percentages have served their historical purpose and the breed should replace them with actual percentages is up for debate.

The NALF Web site displays both NALF and actual percentages in the “Animal EPD Search” tool’s animal-details screen. Registration certificates and performance records soon will display actual percentages, and sale downloads will include them alongside the NALF percentages.

For more information about NALF and actual percentages, contact the NALF office.
 
 

 
 
Sidebar: Lim‑Flex Requirements

Determining if an animal qualifies for registration as Lim‑Flex® requires understanding the difference between NALF and actual percent Limousin, as well as the conditions from A Breeder’s Guide to Lim‑Flex:

1. Animals registered as Lim‑Flex must be 25 to 75 NALF percent Limousin and 25 to 75 actual percent Angus or Red Angus, with a maximum allowance of another breed or unknown breed composition of 12.5 percent. Note the breed-composition requirements are based on NALF percentages for Limousin and actual percentages for Angus and Red Angus.
2. Sires of registered Lim‑Flex animals must be registered with NALF or the sire’s respective breed association and have documented pedigree information for parents.
3. Dams of registered Lim‑Flex animals must be documented as from a registered sire included in either the NALF herdbook or that of another breed association and have actual percent-blood information recorded.

For example, suppose a registered Limousin bull [100 NALF percent (92.8 actual percent) Limousin, 4.9 actual percent Angus and 2.3 actual percent Red Angus] sires a calf by a commercial Angus-cross cow (75 actual percent Angus and 25 actual percent unknown) with a known registered Angus sire.

Although the sum of the sire’s NALF percent Limousin and actual percentages of Angus and Red Angus is greater than 100, recall that NALF percent Limousin often is higher than actual percent Limousin. The sum of his actual percentages of the three breeds is 100.

The offspring has a NALF percent Limousin of 50 [(100 + 0) ÷ 2], an actual percent Angus of 40.0 [(4.9 + 75) ÷ 2] and an actual percent Red Angus of 1.2 [(2.3 + 0) ÷ 2]. Condition 1 of the Lim‑Flex requirements is met because its NALF percent Limousin of 50 is between 25 and 75, its actual percent of Angus and Red Angus is between 25 and 75 (40 + 1.2 = 41.2), and it contains no more than 12.5 percent of another or unknown breed composition (100 − 50 − 41.2 = 8.8). Conditions 2 and 3 also are met because it has a registered sire and its dam is by a registered sire. Therefore, the calf may be registered as Lim‑Flex.