A Steak in Genomics™

When we talk about improving beef cattle genetics, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers. We want heavier calves, better growth, improved carcass merit and more productive cows. But there's another question we need to ask: Are we selecting cattle that fit the environment we're asking them to perform in? Genetic potential is only part of the equation. An animal's phenotype, or how they perform, is a combination of their genotype and environment in which they are raised. Therefore, environment and management influence how that potential is expressed, and genetics that work well in one production system may not be the best fit for another. In my conversations with producers, I tend to come back to three traits that deserve more attention when matching cows to their environment: mature cow size, hair shedding and calving ease. Each addresses a different challenge, but all three provide opportunities to make more intentional selection decisions. Mature cow size: Bigger ...

It’s bull sale season, which means sale catalogs are starting to show up. If you’re like me, there’s something fun about getting a new catalog and flipping through the pages of bulls, pedigrees, performance information, EPDs, accuracies and selection indexes. But after a few pages, all those numbers can start to look a little overwhelming. And that’s where I think we sometimes make bull selection harder than it needs to be. When I open a sale catalog, I don't want to start by looking for the bull with the biggest number. I want to start by asking a much simpler question: What do I need this bull to do? The answer is going to be different for every operation. Maybe you’re buying a bull to breed heifers and need to put a strong emphasis on calving ease. Maybe you’re producing calves to sell at weaning and want to emphasize growth. Maybe you’re retaining ownership through harvest, or maybe you're building a cow herd and need to think about the traits that will influence the daught...

  How genetics, reproduction, nutrition and economics came together to rethink replacement female selection The U.S. beef cow herd has been getting smaller, and rebuilding it isn't as simple as deciding to keep more heifers. For many producers, the decision at weaning comes down to a familiar choice: Do I sell this heifer, or do I keep her as a replacement?  But what if those aren't the only two choices? That question was one of the drivers behind Retain with Intention: Building a Better Missouri Cow Herd , an MU Extension program developed to take a different look at replacement heifer selection and development. When a heifer comes through the chute, we're often quick to think of her as either a replacement or a sale animal. But retaining a heifer is an investment. Once that decision is made, there are additional costs associated with developing her, getting her bred, carrying her through her first pregnancy and ultimately getting her into the mature cow herd. That mean...

 What does the “E” in EPD actually mean? Expected Progeny Difference. That word expected matters. A calf gets about half of its DNA from its sire and half from its dam—but it doesn’t get a perfectly predictable half. The genes passed from each parent are a random sample, which means full siblings can be genetically different from one another. That random shuffle of genes is one of the reasons EPDs are predictions of average progeny performance , not guarantees of what every individual calf will do. It’s also part of the reason genomic information can be useful. By giving us additional information about the genes an animal actually inherited, genomics can help improve our prediction of that animal’s genetic merit. I recently updated the MU Extension publication “The Random Shuffle of Genes: Putting the E in EPD” to help explain the science behind one of the most commonly used tools in beef cattle genetic selection. If you've ever wondered why an EPD is an expectation rather than...

 It’s been a while since I’ve written a Steak in Genomics article. Life has been busy, but in all the best ways. I’ve been working to get a research and Extension program off the ground at the University of Missouri, my husband and I bought a fixer-upper acreage, and, most importantly, we’ve been raising two toddlers. Somehow, somewhere in all of that, Steak in Genomics got pushed down the priority list. But I obviously haven’t stopped thinking about beef cattle genetics. A big part of my Extension work has been figuring out how to take the growing amount of information available through genetics and genomics and make it more useful for the people actually making decisions in a cattle operation. - Because there is no shortage of information.  We have EPDs, genomic testing, selection indexes, DNA tests, genetic trends and new technologies coming at us all the time. The challenge isn't necessarily getting more information. The challenge is knowing what to do with it. That has ...

This past fall, the Missouri Simmental Association and the University of Missouri had the pleasure of hosting Simmental and SimAngus breeders from across the United States to Columbia, MO for the American Simmental Association's Fall Focus meeting. I've always been a fan of this meeting due to its ability to bridge the gap between pivotal research findings and industry application. This year was extra special as I had the opportunity to share some of my research and passions with those individuals and breeders, among others here at the University of Missouri.  On Friday, the Missouri Simmental Association took the lead on developing the daily program, showcasing Missouri Agriculture and Missouri cattle production. A full summary of the program can be found in the October 2025 issue of The Register  here . Saturday, the American Simmental Association put together a morning educational program highlighting the importance of the maternal cow to profitable production systems. The ...

 If you have followed this blog - or lived in Missouri - for any period of time, then you've probably heard about hair shed scoring in beef cattle. If you have, then this post will hopefully serve as a reminder that now is (most likely) the time to go out into the pastures and collect scores. I've been traveling around the state, and country, over the last 18 months or so talking about the importance of matching cattle to their environment, and hair shed scoring fits perfectly into that conversation. However, the number one question I always get is "when do I score". While the short answer is always "it depends", the long answer is "when there is the most variability in your cow herd". With the days getting longer, weather warming up, and even bringing some hefty thunderstorms along with it, early shedders are likely almost shed, if not completely shed, while others in the herd still have their full winter coat.  While hair shedding in cattle is vi...