BeefAI™ AAA Scoring Lane — American Angus Association EPD Evaluation: Technical Reference and Methodology

The American Angus Association (AAA) operates the largest beef cattle genetic evaluation program in the world, publishing Expected Progeny Differences (EPDs) and Value selection indexes for more than 15.9 million registered animals through the National Cattle Evaluation (NCE). This document describes the BeefAI AAA Scoring Lane — a planned extension of the BeefAI genetic decision support platform that adapts the proven BeefAI Genetic Optimisation Method for AAA EPD nomenclature, unit conventions, reference population structure, and Value index architecture. The AAA lane operates within the same computational framework as the existing TransTasman Angus Cattle Evaluation (TACE) lane, sharing the APEX percentile normalisation engine, ACE mating optimisation, GENEius AI narration, and BeefAI Signals watchout system — while substituting AAA-specific trait definitions, Spring 2026 percentile tables (~30,000 Current Sires; ~340,000 Current Dams), heritability estimates, genetic conditions screening, and Value goal mappings. Fourteen trait pairs map directly between AAA and TACE; thirteen AAA-unique traits require new scoring logic including Fertility/Longevity (FL), Udder Composite (UDDR), Teat Composite (TEAT), Cow Energy Value (EN), Residual Average Daily Gain (RADG), and Hair Shedding (HS). The platform detects the AAA format automatically on document upload via Claude Vision OCR and routes scoring to the appropriate evaluation lane without user intervention. This document constitutes the technical specification and prior-art disclosure for the BeefAI AAA Scoring Lane.