A Steak in Genomics™

 Troy Rowan presented at the Kentucky Beef Efficiency Conference, January 5th, 2023. Since 1970, we are producing the same amount of beef with fewer cows. The beef industry is a plant based meat. In our selection, we often focus on the end of the year revenue. However, much of what impacts our profitability is on the cost side of the equation. If we are going to select for a single trait, that single trait has to be profitability. Which traits matter to our bottom line? We often think about things in terms of cow units. But, what really pushes our production is our forage resources. Can we make our cows more efficient at turning those forage resources into a marketable product? What does a profitable cow look like? "A profitable cow is an efficient cow," says Rowan. There are lots of different ways to be inefficient and efficient. An efficient cow is: Moderate Mature Size Maintenance Requirement Milk Fertility Longevity Structural Soundness Udder structure Emissions "The

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

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  

  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!

 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!

My hat is off to the Oklahoma State University Beef Extension team for putting together an excellent  Rancher's Thursday Lunchtime Series to continue to provide information during the pandemic.  I had the pleasure to present in the series with a talk titled "The Genetics of Fertility: Existing and Developing Tools". You can access the slides here:  http://beef.okstate.edu/files/the-genetics-of-fertility You can watch a recording of the presentation below. Red Angus and Hereford producers interested in heifer puberty and fertility research should check out the following pages to learn how to get free genomic-enhanced EPDs by participating in the project. https://blog.steakgenomics.org/2020/07/heifer-puberty-and-fertility-project.html https://blog.steakgenomics.org/2020/02/HeiferRecruitment.html Again, thanks to Dave Lalman for inviting me to present.

 On October 27, 2020, Kelli Retallick and Duc Lu from Angus Genetics Inc. gave a seminar on AGI's research into haplotypes affecting fertility. The dairy industry has been reporting these haplotypes that cause pregnancy's losses for years.  I appreciate that Kelli and Duc emphasized that these should be treated like any other EPD, simply tools that help make selection and mating decisions. No scarlet letters needed! Jerry Taylor reported on USDA funded work on this topic at the 2019 BIF Symposium.  http://blog.steakgenomics.org/2019/06/bif-2019-developing-dna-tests-for.html   Let me know if you have questions about this research or these types of tools!

Researchers seek Hereford and Red Angus heifers in include in the trials. By Heather Smith Thomas Reprinted with permission of BEEF Magazine. You can’t sell a calf that’s never born. That’s why fertility is the most important trait in beef cattle because it all has to start with a pregnancy. A heifer that settles early in the breeding season and continues to have a calf on time every year is much better than a heifer that does not breed, breeds late, or has only one calf and then comes up open and must be replaced by another heifer that is expensive to develop. There are a number of methods producers utilize in selecting heifers, but accurate tools to select heifers for fertility and early puberty have not been available—until now. The University of Missouri is doing a research project looking into the genetics of fertility and heifer puberty, led by Jared Decker, state beef genetics Extension specialist. He recently received a grant from USDA-NIFA (National Institute of Food and Agric

Pre-breeding exam at Red Hill Farms  Heather Smith Thomas wrote a great article on our Heifer Puberty and Fertility Genomics Project. Check it out in the American Red Angus Magazine.  https://issuu.com/redangusassociation/docs/201382_red_angus_oct20_complete_lr/40 Find out how to participate: https://blog.steakgenomics.org/2020/02/HeiferRecruitment.html http://blog.steakgenomics.org/2020/07/heifer-puberty-and-fertility-project.html

University of Missouri USDA Funded Heifer Puberty and Fertility Project Participation Overview Project Goals  Fertility is critically important to both commercial and seedstock breeders. This project aims to improve genetic/genomic predictions for puberty and fertility of heifers by collecting DNA samples and relevant phenotypes, specifically relating to pubertal status and date of conception within the breeding season. This project is funded by the USDA-NIFA Animal Reproduction Program . The project is recruiting 2,500 Hereford and 2,500 Red Angus heifers , to add to a data set of 6,000 Angus heifers. Participation  To inquire about participating in the project, please first contact one of the project coordinators by email or phone:  Erin Larimore Phone: 660-281-5518 Email: LarimoreE@missouri.edu  Dr. Jared Decker   Phone: 573-819-0837  Email: DeckerJE@missouri.edu  Dr. Jordan Thomas   Phone: 573-289-9592  Email: ThomasJor@missouri.edu The following inf

My group has posted a new preprint on bioRxiv .  You can check it out here:  https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.11.988121 Warning, it is written for a technical audience, not in cowboy terms. So- what are the take-home messages for farmers and ranchers? We can identify the DNA variants responding to your selection decisions. You tend to select cattle that have better immune systems. Hormone production in the ovaries is under selection in Red Angus. Makes sense based on the breed's focus on fertility. Muscle development is under selection in Gelbvieh.  We can identify the DNA variants that lead to cattle adapted to their environment Blood vessel tightening or loosening is under environmental selection. The brain and neuron signaling is an important part of environmental adaptation. We are losing local adaptation in beef cattle. Check out this Twitter thread to see figures from the paper. https://twitter.com/pop_gen_JED/status/1258786262149808131 Regarding the last point, we can fix the

Jeremy Taylor University of Missouri Taylor is going to cover several things: GGP-F250 Imputation Haplotype diversity Embryonic Lethals The GGP-F250 is a very unique assay compared to other SNP panels. All of the other available assays (SNP panels) use common variants. The GGP-F250 has many rare variants, most of which are located in genes or other functional elements. Why is rare variation important? Most of the variation in mammalian genomes, including the genomes of cattle, contain rare variation. Most of the DNA differences between different individuals are rare variants. We can't tag this rare variation with the common variants included in most SNP panels. To accurately measure genetic differences (and predict EPDs), we have to account for rare variation. Imputation is the process of: 1. Sorting DNA variants onto each chromosome (phasing) 2. Filling in missing genotypes We can impute from 50,000 SNPs to 700,000 SNPs to 15 million variants. But, we can'

University of Missouri's Southwest Research Center near Mt. Vernon hosted an open house December 3rd that gave attendees a peek at the direction beef cattle research is taking at the 890 acre Center. Dr. Jordan Thomas, MU Extension beef reproduction specialist, led the presentations by asking if producers think they can afford not to use technology. Specifically, he mentioned estrus synchronization and artificial insemination. "The genetics of the AI bred calves allows producers to be competitive with the best herds in the country due to the use of elite bulls with higher accuracy expected progeny differences (EPD)," said Thomas. "The protocol results in more early-born heifers that are more likely to conceive earlier and remain in the herd longer." That longevity adds to herd profitability over the females lifetime. Their early-born steer mates will also be heavier than those out of a natural service sire that's born late in the calving season. Dr.

Ky Pohler Texas A&M University Pohler will discuss many different methods of pregnancy diagnosis. Producers need to find a method that works for them. When do cows experience pregnancy loss? 95% of time fertilization occurs. By day 28, pregnancy has dropped to 70%, a 25% loss of pregnancies. This is referred to as early embryonic loss. By day 42, we lose 8% more pregnancies, the pregnancy rate is now around 62%. This is late embryonic loss. Cows all cost the same to manage. If they don't have a calf or have a calf born late in the calving season, they cost us money. Knowing pregnancy status of the herd helps make management decisions. They can help with drought management (sell open cows) and marketing decisions. Pregnancy diagnosis also helps us evaluate bull or semen fertility and breeding program success. Pregnancy diagnosis doesn't cost a lot, but provides a great economic benefit. What is the ideal pregnancy test? High sensitivity (correctly identify

Joe Dalton University of Idaho Sperm attributes necessary for fertilitization: Acceptable morphology Metabolism for production of energy Progressive motility Capacity for hyperactive motility Stabilization of plasma and acrosomal membrane lipids Acrosomal enzymes Chromatin integrity More is not always better. 1/2 cc straws are not better than 1/4 cc straws. How many sperm cells are needed to get a female pregnant? It depends. Different bulls have different sperm fertility. There are compensable semen traits, such as mis-shaped sperm, that compromise sperm quality. Increasing sperm number can compensate for this. There are incompensable semen traits, such as genetic inviablity, that compromise sperm quality. Increasing sperm number cannont compensate for these traits. They used Angus bulls on Nelore cows to look at the effect of sperm dose. They used 10 million, 20 million, 20 million, and 40 million sperm per straw. They put each of these treatments in different

Adam Summers New Mexico State University What are some of the management things we do to help cows stay in the herd longer? Most literature says a cow needs to produce 3 to 5 calves to be profitable. This depends on your level of supplementation and inputs. Heifers that calve early stay in the herd longer. Cows that calve earlier produce more pounds of calf at weaning over their lifetime. Heifers that calve early produce 550 lbs more of calf over their lifetime. Calves that were in utero during good years (above average rain) had increased birth weights and weaning weights. Calves that were in utero during bad years (below average rain) had more calves when they became cows. Reduced body weight prior to breeding heifers did not change the rate at which those cows left the herd. We are not using estrus synchronization and artificial insemination as much as we should. Main concerns were labor, time, and facilities. However, we can use a PGF2 to increase the number of heife

Eric Scholljegerdes New Mexico State University The number one limiting nutrient on rangeland, whether in a drought or winter, is going to be crude protein. We are feeding two organisms when we are feeding a beef cow. First is the rumen microbes. The second is the cow. We see improvement in low-quality forage intake in response to crude protein supplementation. However, in a drought year this can be an issue. When grass availability is limited, we don't want to waste that resource. This is when a conservative stocking rate comes into play. If forage crude protein is above 8%, we probably don't need to supplement protein as intake is not going to increase. If crude protein is above 8%, we may want to supplement energy instead. Increase in protein allows the bacteria in the rumen to more completely digest the fiber in the diet. By-pass protein provides key amino acids. Non-structural forms of energy, e.g. starch from cereal grains causes a substitution effect. Non-

Jordan Thomas University of Missouri Bos indicus cattle are different from Bos taurus cattle. They were domesticated at a different time, in a different location from a different population than Bos taurus cattle. The big difference between Bos indicus cattle and Bos taurus is the attainment of puberty. Bos indicus cattle reach puberty later on average. Nutrition does not cause earlier puberty, but adequate nutrition is necessary to express potential for puberty. Brahman influenced animals are very sensitive to lower target weights and their ability to reach puberty. Modern compound bows have multiple sights for different distances. Even if we use perfect form, but use the 20 yard sight to shot a target at 60 yards, we will miss the target. We often make this same mistake when trying to hit mature cow weight targets. Cull cow weights can help us better identify the mature cow weight target. Reproductive tract scores are a helpful tool in managing Bos indicus- influenced

George Perry South Dakota State University Criteria that heifers should meet: What has the pregnancy rate in your heifers been over the past few years? Have your heifer received growth promoting implants? Have your heifers reached the target weight? Typically 65%. What are the Reproductive Tract Scores of the heifers? Heifers have to reach 55% of their mature weight to start reaching puberty. However, how well can we know what the mature weight will be? When targeting 55% at breeding, we are really walking on the knife's edge. By targeting 65%, we are hedging for uncertainty. Heifers with Reproductive Tract Scores that are 1 or 2 not only have lower conception rates as heifers, they also have lower conception rates at 2-year olds. Criteria that Cows Should Meet What was the body condition score of your cows at calving? Should be greater than 5. What is the current body condition score of your cows? How many days postpartum will your bows be when estrus synchronizat

Simplicity, management key to successful program  Story by Lisa Henderson Reprinted from Cattlemen' s News . Fewer open cows, less death loss, more growth, more milk and more efficiency. Those are the significant economic advantages crossbreeding can offer your cattle operation. “A crossbred cow is 25 percent more productive over her lifetime compared with a straight-bred commercial cow,” says University of Missouri animal scientist Jared Decker. “Not only do we see increased growth performance out of crossbred cattle, but we see significant impacts on fertility and reproduction.” Decker adds bluntly, “All commercial operations should consider using crossbreeding.” While the popularity of breeds can rise and fall over time, crossbreeding remains an advantageous practice for commercial herds. Heterosis, or hybrid vigor, and breed complementarity are the primary benefits realized from a properly planned crossbreeding program. Heterosis is the increase in perfo