Allen Moczygemba, CEO of American Angus Association announced in a memo  Monday August 14, 2017 that the price for Neogen GGP-LD and Zoetis i50K tests would be reduced to $37, effective immediately. The motivation for this price reduction is even more notable. In November of 2017 Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI) and Neogen will launch a new genomic test (SNP panel) called AngusGS™. This test will use 50,000 (50K) DNA variants, designed specifically for Angus cattle. DNA variants are included based on their frequency in the Angus breed, rather than across many breeds like most DNA panels currently used in the industry. Further, AGI has increased the number of DNA markers in stretches of DNA believed to be involved in fertility, feed efficiency and tenderness. The more detailed genotyping of these chromosome segments will enable more refined research of these important traits. For example, AGI could include increased markers in regions believed to harbor embryonic lethal DNA vari...

Tonya Amen Consultant for Illumina, Inc. One dairy operation was making $35 per year progress for net merit. After using genomics in late 2009, they were making $50 per year in progress for net merit. After they started testing females, this rate increased to nearly $80. This dairy herd is now seeing $340 more in life time production by using genomics. From 2005 to 2008, $B was increasing by $3.77 per year. From 2009 to 2015, $B increased by $5.62 per year. From 2013 to 2015, $B increased by $9.31 per year. A 146% increase in genetic trend. We have seen more rapid genetic improvement in Angus, Hereford and Simmental, all of which line up nicely with the deployment of GE-EPDs. Thus, it is possible (likely?) that this improved genetic improvement is due to the benefit of genomics. In the dairy industry, genomics is equivalent to 25 production records, 25 conformation records, and 140 fertility records. Genomics is saving the Canadian dairy industry $111 million dollars ann...

Tom Short Zoetis Can genetic information from a simple DNA sample allow us to reasonable accuracy of the females lifetime performance? We know that our national cow herd inventory decreased to a very low level in 2014. When we rebuilt the cow herd did we keep low quality heifers that should have never been cows? What type of genomic prediction should we be using to select commercial heifers? GeneMax Advantage was produced by a collaboration of Angus Genetics Inc, Certified Angus Beef, and Zoetis. It is applicable to beef females that are at least 75% Black Angus. These predictions are based on the Zoetis HD50K product for Angus. The correlations between the genomic predictions and the breeding value are all quite good, around 75%. The individual traits are combined into three indexes. These are a Cow Advantage Score, Feeder Advantage Score, and Total Advantage Score. The correlation between Total Advantage and the Cow and Feeder indexes are about 70%, but the correlation b...

Breeding objectives indicate value of genomics for beef cattle Dr. Mike MacNeil DeltaG Is genomic testing a good value to seedstock producers? The answer to this question requires several different lines of thought. To answer this we need a system based approach. What makes up a genetic prediction? Information from relatives Molecular breeding value Correlated phenotypes Phenotype No individual animal in a genetic prediction ever has an accuracy of prediction of zero. The information from the calf's relatives brings in substantial amount of information. What are the advantageous of genomic prediction? 1) Increase accuracy of evaluation 2) More exciting is the opportunity to incorporate additional traits costly or difficult to measure measured late in life (after the time of selection decisions) sex-limited 3) Avoid prolonged generation intervals. For many selection decisions in beef cattle, we make many selection decisions around a year of age. 4)...

Guest Post Written by David Hoffman, MU Extension Livestock Specialist/County Program Director Spring is quickly approaching.  That means warmer weather and green grass are on the way.  For the cow/calf producers, it means that calving is in full swing (or about over for some) and the breeding season is just around the corner. Decisions are being made that will impact the cattle operation for several years, such as the next herd bull to purchase or the sires to breed cows and heifers through artificial insemination.  Some producers spend many hours in selecting the right bull for their operation, looking over pedigrees, EPDs, performance data, etc.  There is a tremendous amount of data available on purebred cattle, but limited genetic data on commercial cattle. In the past, selection for our commercial replacements has been on individual performance, structural soundness, body phenotype and possibly genetic information about sire(s) and/or dam. There has be...

The Thompson Research Center Field Day will be held on Tuesday September 15, 2015 at the research center in Spickard. I will be discussing the use of genomics predictions in registered and commercial heifers. In addition to my talk and demonstration, there will be information on reproduction, nutrition and forages, antibiotic labeling, economics, and timber sales. In the survey below, let me know what topics or questions you would like addressed in my presentation. For those of you in Northwest Missouri, I would love to see you there. Loading...

The Red Angus Association of America has enabled more particular selection of Red Angus commercial females. The Herd Navigator reports breed percentile ranks for the RAAA HerdBuilder and GridMaster indexes, plus 13 EPD traits. The percentile ranks mean a score of 50 is average, a score of 1 is in the top 1 percent (cream of the crop) and a score of 99 is in the bottom 1 percent (bottom of the barrel). The interpretation of these percentile rankings is the same as Red Angus EPDs but is opposite to other commercial heifer panels. The test is marketed for $25 per female. The producer is required to own at least one registered Red Angus bull and the registration must be transferred to the producer (or show involvement with RAAA, such as large semen orders). If the possible sires of the females have been genotyped at GeneSeek for genomic-enhanced EPDs, then the parentage of the females will also be reported to the commercial producer. This is helpful if the commercial producer has used a co...

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 mar...

In their efforts to develop genomic predictions and genomic-enhanced EPDs, the American-International Charolais Association announced today that they have surpassed the 1,000 samples suggested to develop genomic predictions. Now that this level has been reached the association can prepare to release a commercially available genomic prediction test. As we have seen in other breed associations , once the genomic prediction test is commercially available, the amount of data available for retraining can grow. As new animals are tested they can also be used in future rounds of retraining (also called recalibration ). This is an exciting day for the AICA. Congratulations Charolais breeders! Now, what will you do with genomics ? Loading... " Vache de race charolaise avec son veau " by Forum concoursvaches.fr - http://www.concoursvaches.fr . Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons .

The North American Limousin Foundation announced new prices for genetic testing. Of particular note, is the new price for genomic-enhanced EPDs coming in at $60 or $55 if bundled with another test. As the price of genomic-enhanced EPDs continues to decrease , it becomes more attractive for producers to test larger numbers of animals. Other reminders: • DNA Results are sent to NALF from the lab every Thursday,  results are then processed in the NALF system and available to members on Fridays. • NALF only registers ET calves off of the DNA test request form. Any natural calves must be submitted on a natural calf registration application. • February 15th is the deadline to submit data to be included in the next genetic evaluation (calculation of EPDs).

MAGNUM - AMGV38 Picture from search.gelbvieh.org 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 American Angus Association announced the 3rd  recalibration  of the Zoetis HD 50K product. The previous recalibration was based on about 40,000 animals and this recalibration is based on about 51,000 animals. I want to highlight a few points from Crystal Albers' interview with Dr. Kent Andersen of Zoetis and Tonya Amen of Angus Genetics Inc. First, genomic predictions and genomic-enhanced EPDs are self-improving. Every animal tested can be used for the next round of improvements and recalibration. Second, genomic predictions reduce the risk and improve the accuracy of purchase decisions for commercial producers. Third, for the first time the HD 50K product produces genomic-enhanced EPDs for heifer pregnancy . Fourth, Zoetis recognizes the need for more aggressive marketing of animals with genomic-enhanced EPDs to see a greater return on the investment. They use a website called GenomeXchange where their customers have the opportunity to list information about t...

Congratulations to Eric who only missed my percentage of Neanderthal ancestry by a tenth of a percent! I am 2.9% Neanderthal, which puts me in the in the 83rd percentile (which means I have more Neanderthal DNA than 83% of 23andMe customers). I also learned other information about my ancestry. I am basically Northern European, most of which is British and Irish. 23andMe has also identified 991 possible relatives. For a handful of these relatives I've been able to identify the ancestor that we have in common. It has also been interesting to find my risk predictions for certain diseases, my carrier status for several inherited conditions, and predictions for various traits. Unfortunately, 23andMe has runaground of FDA regulations and have stopped offering health predictions  to new customers. As someone interested in population genetics, genealogy, and genomic predictions, I have really enjoyed the information provided by 23andMe. I'm hoping that 23andMe can overcome...

From discussions with seedstock producers at the recent Hereford Education Forum, I realized producers need to use new marketing strategies when utilizing genomic predictions. If you purchase genomic predictions for your yearling bulls, but continue to market your bulls locally, you are not likely to have a favorable return on your investment. You will need to change one of two things: either your current customers will need to recognize the increased value of animals with genomic-enhanced EPDs or you will need to broaden the scope of your marketing. In the short run, I believe marketing to a wider customer base will be the easier solution. For example, a seedstock producer could market nationally any animals that rank in the top 10th percentile of the breed, while continuing to market his remaining crop locally. To reach this national market the producer will need to advertise in national publications, on their farm's website , through internet sales, or in national consignmen...

In addition to DNA variants' utility in predicting EPDs , disease risk, and other traits, they are also very useful in predicting an individual's ancestry. The most common use of this in livestock is parentage verification or testing. But DNA variants can also be used to look at relationships over much longer time scales. For example, my coauthors and I have used SNPs to look at relationships among ruminant species and breeds of cattle . Last week I sent 10 mL of my saliva to 23andMe to for processing and DNA testing. This is the human equivalent of genomic-enhanced EPDs (although 23andMe uses different statistical methods). In addition to finding out if I carry specific genetic disorders and my risk for common diseases, I will also find out about my ancestry. One of the interesting things we have learned from sequencing ancient genomes is that most humans from Europe or Asia have Neanderthal ancestry . So, as part of my 23andMe results I will learn what percent of ...

by Alan Levine I had a great conversation with Tom Steever at the Missouri State Fair Simmental Event . Listen to the interview . Then, post your thoughts in the comments section. In the future, how will your operation approach genetic defects?

Come see me tomorrow at the Missouri State Fair!

Certified Angus Beef is have an intersting contest on their  Facebook page  where people are asked to visually appraise and rank a set of 4 heifers. But, the official placings are based upon their GeneMAX scores. GeneMAX is a genetic test marketed by Zoetis to identify cattle that grow well in the feedlot and produce a highly marbled carcass. Post your placings on Certified Angus Beef's Facebook page for a chance to win. Post the reasons for your placing in the comments section below!

As you may know, both Zoetis and GeneSEEK have updated their genomic tests. Zoetis still uses about 50,000 SNPs, but have now trained their data set with more animal records and genotypes. The genetic correlations for the Zoetis test range from 0.38 to 0.73. See  this Angus Journal article  for more information. GeneSeek now use about 80,000 SNPs in its genomic test. The genetic correlations for the GeneSeek test range from 0.60 to 0.70 for most traits, except milk which is at about 0.4 and calving ease direct which is at 0.34. See this explanation  from the American Angus Association. So, the accuracy differences appear to be pretty small. Both tests cost $75. If you add genetic abnormality tests, such as AM, NH, or CA, to the Zoetis test, you pay $23.00 per test. If you add an the same genetic abnormality tests to the GeneSeek test, you pay $8.00 per test. See the Angus Genetics Inc.  website  or  https://www.angusonline.org/AGI/AgiDnaPricing.aspx...

Gartner Research's Hype Cycle diagram , by Jeremy Kemp. 27 December 2007. Used under a CC-BY-SA license.   I was recently told that I was being over exuberant in my promotion of genomic technologies. If I have slipped into hyperbole , it has been for two reasons: a) An unintentional mistake. b) Push back against the disillusionment of a valid technology. In previous decades new DNA technologies, such as microsatellites, AFLP markers, etc, lead to a lot of hype about how the beef industry was going to be radically changed by these DNA technologies. These were the "Technology Trigger" and "Peak of Inflated Expectations" in the diagram above. I've previously described that these single gene DNA tests completely under-performed compared to expectations. Consequentially, the "Peak of Inflated Expectations" was followed by the "Trough of Disillusionment". In this period of disillusionment, two important things happened. First,...