Posts

Featured Post

Hereford and Red Angus Heifers Recruited for Genomics Research

The University of Missouri is recruiting 2,500 Hereford heifers and 2,500 Red Angus heifers to participate in a heifer puberty and fertility genomic research project. Heifers should be registered Hereford, registered Red Angus, or commercial Hereford or Red Angus. Hereford x Red Angus crossbred heifers targeted for the Premium Red Baldy Program would also be a good fit for the research project. Producers must be willing to work with a trained veterinarian to collect the following data: ReproductiveTract Scores collected at a pre-breeding exam 30 to 45 days prior to the start of the breeding season. PelvicMeasurements (height and width) collected at the same pre-breeding exam 30 to 45 days prior to the start of the breeding season. Pregnancy Determination Using Ultrasound reporting fetal age in days. Ultrasound will need to occur no later than 90 days after the start of the breeding season. In addition, heifers must have known birth dates and have weights recorded eithe
61 comments
Read more

Video: Genomics of heifer pregnancy, days open, and days to conception in Red Angus heifers

Congratulations to Esdras Tuyishimire who successfully defended his Masters thesis! You can watch a recording of his seminar above.  Discussion of genetic and genomic prediction using these traits is at the 29 minute mark.
Post a Comment
Read more

Genomics of heifer pregnancy, days open, and days to conception in Red Angus heifers

Image
  On April 22nd at 10 am Central Time, Esdras Tuyishimire will be presenting his Masters thesis work in a seminar titled, "Genomics of heifer pregnancy, days open, and days to conception in Red Angus heifers". Heifer Pregnancy is a discrete success versus failure observation. Esdras investigated using what day of the breeding season did a heifer conceive (Days to Conception) and how many days of the breeding season was a heifer open (Days Open) as alternative ways to look at heifer fertility.  You can watch a recording of Esdras' seminar:  https://blog.steakgenomics.org/2022/05/video-genomics-of-heifer-pregnancy-days.html   Thanks to the Red Angus Association of America for providing the data for Esdras' research!
Post a Comment
Read more

BIF 2021: Increase Adaptability Through Use of Hair Shedding EPDs

Image
Decker explains the importance of utilizing hair shedding EPDs to increase animal adaptability. “Hair shedding is linked to milk production, reproduction and possibly animal welfare. Hair shedding is easy to collect and predict so it may play a role in selecting genetics with an improved adaptability to heat stresses,” said Jared Decker, University of Missouri associate professor. He gave his presentation “A Piece of the Adaptability Puzzle: Multi-breed Hair Shedding Genetic Effects and EPD” during the Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium June 23 in Des Moines, Iowa. Cow efficiency and adaptability is a multi-pronged and complicated puzzle. Researchers have pursued the identification of local adaptation and region-specific genomic predictions in beef cattle using hair shedding scores as an indicator of tolerance to heat stress. Hair shedding scores measure how early the winter hair is shed off in the spring and summer. Cattle tend to shed their winter hair from front to back an
Post a Comment
Read more

BRTF Webinar: Beef Heifer Puberty and Fertility Genomic Research, What genetic prediction should borrow from reproductive management

 The Beef Reproduction Task Force invited me to present in their 2022 Webinar series. You can watch the webinar below or on Facebook. Thanks again to BRTF for the opportunity to present!
Post a Comment
Read more

Caleb Grohmann Selected for the Future Leaders for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) Fellowship

Image
Caleb Grohmann, a PhD student in informatics and data science, was selected as a Future Leaders for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) Fellow by Kate Preston Caleb Grohmann, a PhD student in informatics and data science, was selected as a Future Leaders for Food and Agriculture (FFAR) Fellow. Each year the FFAR Fellowship selects PhD students from universities around the country. Grohmann was selected for the 2021-24 cohort. “The FFAR Fellowship is a great opportunity to network with other PhD students from different universities,” said Grohmann. “Everyone has such diverse backgrounds and it’s been interesting to learn about everyone’s research.” Grohmann, who is originally from Red Bud, Illinois, grew up on a commercial hog operation, Cedar Ridge Farms. His family produces commercial breeding stock that they sell internationally and domestically. “Growing up on a farm, that’s where my passion for animal agriculture began. More specifically, my passion for commercial pig production,” said Gr
Post a Comment
Read more

Cattle losing adaptations to environmental stressors, MU researchers find

Image
Research highlights the need for cattle genetic tests that can look for the presence of specific adaptations, such as heat resistance. Read the research article at  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009652 . Written by Austin Fitzgerald As a fourth-generation cattle farmer, Jared Decker knows that cattle suffer from health and productivity issues when they are taken from one environment--which the herd has spent generations adapting to--to a place with a different climate, a different elevation or even different grass. But as a researcher at the University of Missouri, Decker also sees an opportunity to use science to solve this problem, both to improve the welfare of cattle and to plug a leak in a nearly $50 billion industry in the U.S. “When I joined MU in 2013, I moved cattle from a family farm in New Mexico to my farm here in Missouri,” said Decker, an associate professor and Wurdack Chair in Animal Genomics at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. “New Mexico
1 comment
Read more

Brangus Journal: Hair Shedding Scores in Brangus Cattle

 You can visit the Brangus Journal to read an article Harly Durbin and Jared Decker wrote about hair shedding scores in Brangus cattle.  https://issuu.com/gobrangus/docs/2021_april_brangus_journal-compressed_2/26
1 comment
Read more