A Steak in Genomics™

The annual Taney County Livestock and Forage Conference has been scheduled for Thursday, February 27 at the Forsyth High School Cafeteria (Panther Pit) in Forsyth, Missouri.  This popular University of Missouri Extension program is attended by livestock producers in order to learn the latest information to manage their farms better and improve farm income.

“This long-running conference continues to equip livestock producers to better manage their operations and provide quality beef products for consumers,” said Tim Schnakenberg, University of Missouri Extension agronomy specialist based in Galena. “The program will focus on a variety of topics useful for all livestock producers.”

A planning committee from the community organized a discussion on timely management concerns for cattlemen.  Dr. Jared Decker, state extension beef specialist from Columbia will lead a discussion on how to make good beef cattle selection decisions when producers are trying to build back their herds.

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Wanted to give you all a heads up that I will be presenting at the Taney County Livestock & Forage Conference, Thursday February 27, 2014. The program will run from 6 to 9 pm at the Forsyth High School Cafeteria - Panther Pit, Forsyth, MO.

There will be a beef dinner, followed by my presentation on "Beef Cattle Selection Decisions" in which I will be discussing genetic testing in beef cattle, how to understand sale catalogs and make well-founded breeding decisions. I will be followed by Stacy Hambelton who will discuss "Evaluating the Cost of Retaining Heifers" and Tim Schnakenberg who will discuss "A Look at Some Developing Pasture Weeds".

Please preregister by calling 417-546-4431 by February 24th.

This program is made possible by the Taney County Extension Council and the Taney County Commission. A meal will be provided at this conference courtesy of Branson Bank, First Community Bank, and Peoples Bank.

On January 14th, Dr. Jon Beever of the University of Illinois sent a letter to the Board of Directors of the American Gelbvieh Association informing them that his lab had resolved issues with odd results when testing fullblood Gelbvieh animals with the DNA test for Contractural Arachnodactyly (CA, “fawn calf”). One of the oldest fullblood Gelbvieh bulls, Magnum (AMGV38) tested as a carrier of the CA abnormality, and several other Gelbvieh animals with little Angus influence tested as either affected or carrier.

Dr. Beever took several lines of action to evaluate what was producing the odd results and after DNA sequencing the region in the Gelbvieh animals found that the protein sequence was still functional in the Gelbvieh animals. But, the DNA base pair used in the diagnostic test was the same in affected Angus and normal Gelbvieh. Thus, the test was producing false positives in Gelbvieh animals.

Dr. Beever originally designed the test to minimize the false negative rate. His lab is…