All bulls purchased after February 1st, 2019 for use as natural service sires in the Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program ™  must be DNA tested to have genomic-enhanced EPDs. All bulls used as natural service sires after February 1st, 2020 must have genomic-enhanced EPDs, regardless of when they were purchased. Seedstock producers classifying bulls as Show-Me-Select qualified in sale books must have genomic-enhanced EPDs on those lots. Bulls purchased prior to February 1st, 2019 will be grandfathered into the program, as is the common practice with all natural service sires. However, this grandfather grace period will end February 1st, 2020. At that time for a bull to qualify for use in the program, it must have genomic-enhanced EPDs. Why the change? The Show-Me-Select Replacement Heifer Program has the goal of producing premium heifers that perform predictably as 2 year olds. The program has a history of requiring Show-Me-Select producers to go beyond typical...

Scott Brown, MU Extension agricultural economist , discusses the premiums for cattle with Prime grades. Can cattle that grade Prime be a risk management strategy? Recorded at the MU CAFNR  Thompson Research Center Field Day, September 21, 2017. Loading...

By Darcy Vial USDA FSA Oregon via Wikimedia Commons Written by Tom Brink RAAA CEO Reprinted from the Red Angus eNews - October 4, 2017 Calving ease is especially important in first-calf females, and is therefore something we pay close attention to when breeding virgin heifers. In fact, calving ease considerations usually rank first on the list when selecting bulls to use on heifers.   Red Angus bulls often see service on heifers thus, mapping the relationship between calving ease EPDs (CED) and unassisted births is a worthwhile task. The better Red Angus breeders understand this relationship, the better selection and mating decisions they can make for themselves and their customers. The curved line shown in the chart below was statistically derived from tens of thousands of Red Angus calving records stored in the RAAA database. All of the calvings are from first parity females bred to bulls ranging from -8 to 20 for CED. This line captures the “average” or “t...

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)...

Genomic-enhanced selection tools to undergo scheduled upgrade American Angus Association® and Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI), the organization’s genetic services subsidiary, will soon release newly calibrated genomic-enhanced expected progeny differences (GE-EPDs). On March 21, AGI announced plans to release the latest calibration of its genomic-enhanced selection tools in mid-April. The process is the fifth of its kind since introducing GE-EPDs in 2010, and further refines how DNA test results are incorporated with pedigree, performance measures and progeny data into the selection tools released through the Association’s weekly National Cattle Evaluation (NCE). AGI President Dan Moser says the extensive process of calibrating GE-EPDs results in further accuracy on more animals in the Association’s growing database, but with generally less incremental change with each consecutive calibration. “This latest calibration represents a fine-tuning of the genomic-enhanced EPDs provide...

Today, an article I wrote appeared in BEEF Magazine's Cow-Calf Weekly. Do we HAVE to cull genetic defect cattle? Science says no In this article, I used genetic defects as a case study for what happens when we don't embrace the new opportunities science provides. Science now allows us to manage genetic defects differently than we did 50 years ago. But, I fear with all of the baggage genetic defects bring, that my main point will be lost. My main point is simple. Embrace science. Embrace technology. Embrace new approaches. I love that Burke Teichert encourages us to be a constant learner searching for better practices. I have also tried to encourage people to embrace science . In conclusion, I am not a genetic defects zealot. Manage them how you see fit. But, I am a science zealot! Please look for ways science and technology can benefit your operation. For different production systems and breeding objectives, how science is used will look differently. Science can ...

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...

The American Gelbvieh Association (AGA) has released genomic-enhanced EPDs with the fall 2014 international cattle evaluation. Genomic-enhanced EPDs (GE EPDs) combine pedigree, individual performance and genomic information to save time and money, reduce risk, and accelerate the rate of genetic progress. GE EPDs provide more precise EPDs based on a combination of both phenotype and DNA. One major benefit of these EPDs is risk reduction through increased accuracies . These increased accuracies save time when assessing young breeding stock as well as deliver commercial customer confidence when buying seedstock. Herd improvement is accelerated when breeders can more accurately identify young individuals with the best genetics. GE EPDs also give the chance to collect data on economically important traits, which are expensive or difficult to measure. The information from the genomic data can be as informative as a bull's first calf crop or a cow's lifetime production recor...

by David Dodge Psst ... Can I let you in on a secret? All EPDs are accurate. That's right all EPDs are accurate. EPDs are calculated using a statistical procedure called BLUP. BLUP stands for Best Linear Unbiased Prediction . Because BLUP estimates are unbiased , they are all accurate. So, if all EPDs are accurate what is this accuracy we always talk about? Calling this measure an accuracy is a misnomer . What EPD accuracy actual measures is precision. The EPD accuracy measures how precise the EPD estimate is. All EPDs are on the top row of the grid above. What is reported as the accuracy is a measure of the precision or reliability. When animals have lots of data, the estimates are precise and there is a small difference between the true value and the estimated prediction. When animals have little data, the estimates are not precise, but the EPD estimates average out to the true values. This is why using many low accuracy sires (rather than a single proven sire) is an ...

The American Simmental Association continues to adjust their management and reporting of genetic defects and abnormalities. From their eNews newsletter: At the April board meeting, the ASA Board of Trustees voted unanimously to remove the color system from TraitTrac and add all genetic conditions with available tests into our TraitTrac system (including the most recent condition, developmental duplication). While the existing TraitTrac has worked well for years, it gives a false impression that "green" animals are clear of genetic defects - they are only clear of the ones we know about. Furthermore, this gives us flexibility to add new conditions to TraitTrac relatively simply as they are discovered. In the new TraitTrac system, the main animal page says "TraitTrac" if an animal has no results on any genetic conditions. If the statement "Check for available results" appears under "TraitTrac" then there is additional information on this animal. ...

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...

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...

I will be speaking at the Thompson Farm Field Day on Tuesday September 17th about increasing the precision of purchasing, mating, and culling decisions. Hope to see you there!

I just came across a great post by Allie Janson Hazell about risk tolerance and genetic testing  on The Genoscape blog. In several posts (such as this and most recently this ) I've argued that livestock producers should use genomic-enhanced EPDs to reduce their risks. Rather than the risk of finding out about health issues, which is discussed on The Genoscape, in livestock production we are interested in financial risk. So how risk adverse are you? To find out, head over to the Rutgers Cooperative Extension website and take their Investment Risk Tolerance Quiz . In future posts I plan to discuss reasons other than risk management why genomic-enhanced EPDs are valuable.

I am in the process of purchasing a new house. In this process I am collecting as much information as possible to make an informed decision and reduce my risk. I've had the home inspected, which included looking at the roof, exterior, basement, crawl space, kitchen, bathrooms, electrical, heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and vegetation. I've also paid for a radon inspection and a pest inspection. I've done all of this because this is a large investment and I want to avoid future headaches. This winter and spring we have seen several bulls in various breeds sell for prices with six figures. Whenever I look at these bulls on the respective breed association websites, I am shocked that most of these bulls have parent average EPDs. These bulls have no production, progeny, or genomic information. Why does this surprise me? If we think back a few years, we can identify a bull that sold for six figures at a national sale. At the time this bull was marketed, his parent a...

There are lots of ways to make a decision. We can act on our impressions or intuitions. Or, we can gather data and let the evidence guide our decisions. I call this a data-driven philosophy. This week, Amanda Radke and  Kris Ringwall gave their perspectives on a data-driven bull purchase. Both are great articles that I encourage you to check out. Here is my take—we need to make our decisions on a single metric that takes all available information into consideration. These metrics are expected progeny differences (EPDs) and economic indexes. EPDs combine performance records, information from relatives, information from correlated traits, and—in the case of genomic-enhanced EPDs—results from DNA tests. EPDs are the most accurate measure for a particular trait of the bull's merit as a sire. Economic indexes combine multiple EPDs and economic values of each trait to create a single measure of the bull's merit for increasing a producer's profit. We should not be selectin...