A Steak in Genomics™

Previously, when I spoke with commercial producers about genomic predictions for their heifers, I talked about two products, the GeneMax Focus and the GeneMax Advantage tests marketed by Zoetis. This has now changed.

GeneMax Focus and GeneMax Advantage Of course, genomic predictions for seedstock cattle have been available for a large number of breeds, including Angus, Red Angus, Simmental, Hereford, Limousin, Gelbvieh, Santa Gertrudis, and Charolais. But, genomic predictions for commercial cattle where only available from Zoetis for high-percentage (greater than 75%) Angus cattle.

GeneMax Focus was the first commercial cattle genomic prediction test released. It provides predictions on a 5 point scale for marbling and gain, and an index called a GMX score on a scale from 1 to 100. These scores are percentile ranks where 50 is average, 1 is the bottom of the heap, and 99 is top of the class. This test cost $17. From my conversations, it explains about 20% of the variation in marbling …

On January 27th I spoke with Scott Brown during the evening portion of the Southwest Missouri MU Extension Beef Cattle Conference organized by Patrick Davis, Andy McCorkill, and Eldon Cole. I discussed the facts about EPDs working to change a herd and how genomic testing can improve the precision and reliability of EPDs. Genomic testing is allowing us to select for traits that were previously not under selection, such as feed efficiency, bovine respiratory disease resistance, embryonic loss, and tenderness. You can download my slides from my extension website.

But, in this post, I want to focus on Scott Brown's comments. For those of you who don't know Dr. Brown, he is a leading agriculture economist who has been influential in the formation of agricultural policy on the state and national level. On Tuesday night he gave a projection on the future of beef cattle economics. As we all know, beef prices are at record highs, but this is driven by historically low cattle numbers. …

STOCKTON, Mo. – The Southwest Missouri MU Extension Beef Cattle Conference begins at 4 p.m., Jan. 27, 2015, at the Stockton United Methodist Church in Stockton.
The Southwest Missouri MU Extension Beef Cattle Conference is designed to provide the latest information on beef cattle production, marketing, economics, nutrition, and forage utilization. 
Presenters at the meeting include: Dr. Scott Brown, assistant research professor of agricultural and applied economics at University of Missouri, will provide a 2015 economic outlook of the beef cattle industry.Dr. Jared Decker, assistant professor of beef genetics extension and computational genomics at the University of Missouri, will discuss beef cattle genetics.Sarah Kenyon, agronomy specialist with MU Extension in Texas County, will discuss pasture management to reduce fescue toxicity.The evening meal will be catered by Maggie Mae's Tea Room of Miller, Mo.
“That same evening, agriculture businesses that have supported the event will …