by   Janese Heavin Beef producers in the future could have a more precise way to determine the productivity of their cattle, thanks to a collaboration between Mizzou Engineering and the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR). “The goal is to maximize intake versus the output such as meat production,” said  Guilherme DeSouza . “From an engineering point of view, we want to optimize the process.” DeSouza is an associate professor of  electrical engineering and computer science  (EECS). He is working with  Jared Decker , an associate professor for CAFNR. Decker recently received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for the work. The project aims to provide a better understanding of how a herd’s environment and management impact productivity, Decker said. Researchers will predict factors such as a cow’s size—surface area to volume ratio—skeletal structure, fat resources and hair coa...

A trio of researchers will purchase one GreenFeed Pasture System with the grant Written by Logan Jackson   A trio of researchers in the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR) Division of Animal Sciences recently received a 2020 Research Equipment Grant from C-Lock Inc. to purchase one GreenFeed Pasture System, which measures the amount of methane, carbon dioxide, oxygen, hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide gases released by cattle. GreenFeed Pasture System, C-Lock Inc. Jared Decker, associate professor and state beef Extension specialist, Eric Bailey, assistant professor and state beef Extension specialist, and Derek Brake, assistant professor, are the trio leading the project for CAFNR. Their focus will be on using GreenFeed for the prediction of cow efficiency genetic merit (cow efficiency EPD) by combining gas production data, metabolic theory, and genomic and pedigree data. C-Lock Inc., founded in 2009, developed and patented GreenFeed. Thi...

Michael Genho Elanco Animal Health From the business dictionary, efficiency is "the comparison of what is actually produced or performed with what can be acheived with the same consumption of resources (money, time, labor, etc.)" Production Metrics Feed Conversion Ratio Residual Feed Intake What's missing? Level of input and output. What is the optimal within a given context? These (FCR and RFI) fail to take economic situation into account. Elanco has a calculator to measure the optimal days on feed. In an example, feeding a set of cattle for 28 more days would have been more profitable because of increased margin profit from the gain of those cattle. This was true even though the feed conversion of this pen would have gotten worse over those 4 weeks. Elanco is working to help customers move up the analytical ladder. Move from standard close outs to statistical analyses to predictive analyses. Elanco looked at drivers of closeout profitability comp...

Red Angus Association of America announces release of Dry Matter Intake (DMI) and Average Daily Gain (ADG) EPDs. https://www.progressivecattle.com/news/industry-news/8383-red-angus-association-releases-two-new-epds-aimed-at-increasing-efficiency Why not release a RFI EPD? The animals ranking for feed efficiency changes based on how we express the trait.  http://blog.steakgenomics.org/2014/08/improving-feed-efficiency-feed.html The best way to account for the cost of additional feed intake is through an economic selection index in which we balance both growth and intake. "Five Reasons to DNA Test Your Cows" https://hereford.org/2018/05/five-reasons-to-dna-test-your-cows/ Head over to the American Hereford Association website to learn more about DNA testing your cowherd. Speaking of DNA testing cows... Leoma Wells provided an update on the American Simmental Association's Cow Herd Roundup (CHR) on their Facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/AmericanSimmental...

Dorian Garrick Theta Solutions LLC The Theta Solutions LLC is made up of Dr. Bruce Golden, Dr. Dorian Garrick, and Dr. Daniel Garrick. They have developed the BOLT software for genetic and genomic evaluations. The American Hereford Association formed an advisory committee to check the new genetic evaluation system. The advisory committee looked at the process during development. The advisory committee included: Joe Ellis Jack Holder Lee Haygood Paul Bennett Mitch Abrahamsen Suppose we had 100 progeny (i.e. offspring) on 1 bull. You might look at that bull and decide you like him or you don’t like him. But, that bull is just an envelop that carries genetic information. What the bull looks like really doesn’t matter, what matters is what his progeny look like. The way to look at the genetic value, or breeding value, of the bull is to look at his offspring. But, there are lots of environmental effects that influence the performance of the offspring. One example is the age ...

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...

Dr. Matt Spangler University of Nebraska-Lincoln A seedstock producer's goal should be faster genetic progress ( breeders equation ). But, we need to balance this by the cost of the genetic progress. Although some of these traits are interesting to us as biologist (what Spangler termed "biological intrigue"), what really matters at the end of the day is improving cattle. What is the difference between an indicator trait and economically relevant traits? Economically relevant traits are traits that directly impact profit by either influencing revenues or expenses. Indicator traits are traits that are recorded because they allow us to more reliably predict economically relevant traits. An example of this would be calving ease direct and birth weight. No one gets paid for or has costs associated with birth weights. But, birth weight is a great indicator of calving ease, because calving ease can have economic impacts through labor, dead calves, cows that don't rebr...

Bill Bowman and Sally Northcutt Method Genetics LLC Bowman and Northcutt discussed several new EPDs either in development or released by AHA, including: Dry Matter Intake Sustained Cow Fertility Heifer Calving Rate Udder Quality (Teat Size and Udder Suspension) Heifer Calving Rate , Sustained Cow Fertility , and Dry Matter Intake are currently released as prototype evaluations and can be accessed as a downloadable Excel file. "One of the things you all have going for you is the foresight to begin a TPR program ," said Bowman. Heifer Calving Rate Heifer Calving Rate (HCR) is a categorical trait, they either calved or they didn't. Method Genetics reports a heritability of 15% for Heifer Calving Rate. They analyzed 98,000 records, of which 73% had calved by 800 days of age, 27% had not calved. Contemporary grouping for heifers is based upon their herd, yearling weigh date, calf birth year and season. "This EPD goes beyond a traditional heifer pregna...

Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE Matt Spangler University of Nebraska-Lincoln  Why are we working on these novel traits?  Because they have great economic importance.  Further, they have heritable genetic variation.  We do have EPDs for feed intake and fertility, but they are not as pervasive as other (weight and carcass) traits. Continued phenotypic data collection and recording is critically needed. But, the breed associations have to do something with the data. Otherwise, progressive seedstock producers will look outside breed associations for genetic evaluations. This will not be a great outcome for commercial cattle producers. Nine breeds are already incorporating genomic information into EPD, with many other breeds right on the cusp of releasing genomic-enhanced EPDs. As genotyping becomes more common and more animals are genotyped, many of the current limitations are eliminated. But, there is continued room for statistical approaches...

DNA Technology: Where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed Conference sponsored by the Beef Feed Efficiency grant, beefefficiency.org Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE Matt Spangler University of Nebraska-Lincoln In poultry, we have seen a 250% improvement in feed efficiency since 1957. We have dramatically improved the efficiency of gain in chickens. We have not made similar progress in beef cattle. How can we move the needle and start to make progress? First of all, how do we define feed efficiency? Average daily gain (ADG) Average daily feed intake (AFI) Residual feed intake (RFI) is the difference between what we expected an animal to eat and what they actually ate. In residual feed intake, how we define a contemporary group is very important. For example, think of combining Scottish Highland and Chianina cattle in a group.  EPDs for feed efficiency Residual gain residual feed intake dray matter intake Days to finish If a...

DNA Technology: Where we've been, where we are, and where we're headed Conference sponsored by the Beef Feed Efficiency grant, beefefficiency.org Meat Animal Research Center, Clay Center, NE Jared E. Decker University of Missouri Introduction It has frequently been stated that reproductive traits have low heritabilities, meaning little of the variation in reproductive traits is due to genetic differences. Due to this catchphrase, producers may not emphasize reproductive traits in their breeding decisions. Further, cows and heifers may sometimes receive a “Get Out of Jail, Free” card when their reproductive performance is lacking. Let us reconsider the amount of variation in reproductive traits due to genetics. First consider the Heifer Pregnancy EPD reported by the American Angus Association. They report a heritability of 14% for Heifer Pregnancy ( https://www.angus.org/Nce/Heritabilities.aspx ). At first, this may seem like a very small percentage. But, to put ...

A new website dedicated to beef cattle genetics has been launched at the 2015 Beef Improvement Federation Conference. eBEEF.org is part of the national eXtension program with the goal of being a one-stop site for beef cattle genetics and genomics information. Beef cattle specialists from six land grant institutions have joined forces to provide educational materials that are pertinent to today’s beef cattle producers, without searching multiple sites or filtering through countless hits on a search. The site contains factsheets , short frequently asked question (FAQ) video clips, relevant conference recordings and webinars, a blog and links to other useful beef sites. One of the developers of the new site, Dr. Darrh Bullock at the University of Kentucky said “Often beef producers get frustrated when they search for information online and get information overload. We wanted to develop a user friendly site that provides information in a concise, understandable way without having ...

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 num...

There was standing room only for the Breed Improvement Session of the Angus Means Business National Convention  on November 4th, 2014. Genomic Recalibration Dan Moser, Angus Genetics Incorporated Performance data reported to the American Angus Association has become more important than ever. Not only is this data necessary to get highly precise estimates from sires, but it is the foundation of developing genomic predictions for genomic-enhanced EPDs. In the training or recalibration of genomic predictions, basically an EPD effect is estimated for every DNA variant included in the genomic prediction test. The genomic prediction (also called the Molecular Breeding Value, MBV) is the sum of every EPD effect for approximately 50,000 DNA variants evenly spread throughout the cattle chromosomes. Initial GE-EPDs in 2010 were based on 2,253 animals. In 2012 the training set increased to  11,756, by 2013 the training set was larger than 38,000 animals, and now in 2014 has reach...

In October, we reported that Angus Genetics Inc would be including feed intake data into $F and $B indexes. On December 5th, 2014 those changes took effect. In our October poll, 91% of the respondents indicated that they considered including feed intake data as an improvement to the $B index. And, the data backs this up (see here for more about our data-driven philosophy). Since 2004 the American Angus Association has seen an increasing genetic trend for feed intake. This means Angus producers have been indirectly selecting for increased feed intake, which is a negative when we are striving for more efficient cattle. Figure 1. Deregressed estimated breeding values for birth and weaning weight plotted against birth date. Deregressed estimated breeding values plotted against birth date for 3,570 Angus animals. The blue lines represent fitted linear and red lines represent fitted quadratic regressions. a . Deregressed birth weight EBV, and b . Deregressed weaning weight EBV. Dec...

Jack Ward, Wade Shafer, and John Genho presented during todays NBCEC Brown Bagger seminar. They gave updates about how their breeds are utilizing genomic information. Jack Ward The American Hereford Association will release an Udder EPD in the Spring 2015 update, which is typically published in late December. They are also working on a Feed Efficiency EPD which could be released in December, but will more likely be in the Summer of 2015. In the Summer of 2015 the AHA will also publish a Sustained Cow Fertility EPD (similar to other breed's longevity EPDs) and a Heifer Calving Rate EPD (a measure of heifer fertility). Ward also presented a nice analysis of price differences between bulls with and without genomic-enhanced EPDs. He set an upper limit of $15,000 to avoid high priced bulls that would skew the numbers. Bulls with traditional, low accuracy EPDs averaged $5,325. Bulls with genomic-enhanced EPDs averaged $7,475 at sale. More results can be seen in Ward's Hereford ...