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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
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Hair Shedding Research Available

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 Happy to submit our Hair Shedding manuscript for publication. Preprint is available at bioRxiv   https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.14.520472   This is an exciting manuscript. It represents the work of many collaborators, especially farmers and ranchers. I made a lot of great friends through this project. The science is exciting. The large, multi-breed sample size worked well to identify associations and genetic interactions with hair shedding. We were also able to make accurate genomic predictions of hair shedding for multiple breeds. I also think hair shedding scores are a valuable management tool. Cows who shed late tend to have poorer nutrition or are stressed in some way.  Data has been submitted to Dryad and should be publicly available soon. Data is not published yet, but in a few weeks it will appear at this address:  https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ngf1vhhz4   Harly Durbin Rowan deserves the lion's share of the credit for managing this project, working with farmers and rancher
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What the genetics of feral cats tell us about domestication and human history

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  Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons The journal Heredity  did a nice podcast with Sara Nilson, Leslie Lyons and me on our recent cat paper.  Listen here:  https://nature.com/hdy/podcast https://shows.acast.com/heredity-podcast-naturecom-science-feeds/episodes/the-cradle-of-cat-domestication Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-022-00568-4 Nilson, S.M., Gandolfi, B., Grahn, R.A.  et al.  Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East.  Heredity   129 , 346–355 (2022).
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What Genetic Prediction Should Borrow from Reproductive Management

  Beef Heifer Puberty and Fertility Genomic Research from American Hereford Association on Vimeo .
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American Hereford Association Webinar on Heifer Puberty and Fertility

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The University of Missouri is recruiting 2,500 Hereford heifers to participate in a heifer puberty and fertility genomic research project. Reserve a spot for the webinar on September 6th, 2022 at 7 p.m. CDT to hear from the team members conducting the project and learn how to get involved. RSVP for the event here:  https://hereford.ac-page.com/aha-mizzou-webinar  
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Commercial Cattlemen's Symposium Focused on Heifer Development

DENVER - The bustling ballrooms of Kalispell, Montana, will soon be filled with innovative and forward-thinking cattlemen and women during the 69th annual National Red Angus Convention. The Commercial Cattlemen’s Symposium, hosted by the Red Angus Association of America, is sure to be a highlight of the convention and will offer beef producers the tools and knowledge they need to strengthen their operations and improve their profitability. This year’s symposium, held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell on Wednesday, Sept. 14, will feature a diverse, experienced group of speakers guaranteed to offer valuable insight to attendees. “We are thrilled to continue offering commercial cattlemen and women free educational events during the annual National Red Angus Convention. As the Commercial Marketing Team, it is always exhilarating to bring so many commercial operations – our customers – together for this event. Red Angus has always been focused on the cow, and with the release of our new
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Herefords in the Cove: Measure What is Important to You

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 As I no longer have an extension appointment, my presentations at producer meetings have become much less frequent. I did get the opportunity to present at Herefords at the Cove event put on by the Georgia Hereford Association. This is a continuation of the Herefords on the Mountain event started by Tommy Coley. Here is a link to my slides. Decker_HerefordsCove_2022.pptx As I was driving home from Junior National Hereford Expo, a thought popped into my head. I like Love's gas stations. Part of the reason I like them, is they consistently have clean bathrooms. And why do they have clean bathrooms? Because they measure it! As cattle breeders, we can take a lesson from this. We need to make sure we are measuring what is important to us and our customers.
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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.
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Genomics of heifer pregnancy, days open, and days to conception in Red Angus heifers

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  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!
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BIF 2021: Increase Adaptability Through Use of Hair Shedding EPDs

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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
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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!
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