Genemax Results

Help Support CattleToday:

Bovine breeder

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2017
Messages
84
Reaction score
0
Location
Kentucky


I Finally got my Genemax Advantage scores back and thought I would share for discussion. I tested 7 weaned heifers, 6 of which are AI Sired and one is by the cleanup bull. I also tested 7 cows to compare to as a base. Only one of them is AI sired, or even sired by a registered bull.

My first thoughts are, the A.I. sired ones are better, not a big surprise. But it is also very helpful information to have. It uncovered some areas I didn't even realize, or hadn't yet shown to be a problem, like CEM. The old cows scored very poorly in most all areas, which also tells me the cows that had been doing an OK job for me, were just average at best based on their genomic data.

It is also amazing the difference that was made in one generation. There are 5 mothers and daughters on the list, and the AI sired calves all made significant improvements in basically every area. 15 is the dam of 615, and she was sired by a fairly mediocre cleanup bull i had. Her index scores are basically the same as her dams, showing no genetic improvement. 807 is sired by Hickok and her dam is 615, and her cow index score went from 50 to 78!!! Also from a 19 to a 61 on feeder advantage and a 30 to a 75 on total advantage!! Again, not earth shattering news that the AI sired ones are better, but amazing the differnce in one generation when properly quantified.

Last thought is, the data is correct. 601 scored a 92 for CEM, sired by Chinook, who is a +16 CEM (1%)
802's dam is 12, who scored a 69 on marbling. 802 is sired by Brusier with a 0.24 Marbling score (80%) she scored a 27

I Could go on all night but you get the point. Awesome information to have and very excited to see how the next generaton progresses.
 
Help me to understand. Can this data be compared to angus breed averages?

In example:
current non-parent cow breed average is ww 52
top 5% ww 69
Bottom 5% ww 32

your AI sired females average is ww 68.88
herd sire females average ww 33.38
and your group average is ww 53.86

Am I correct in reading the data in this manner?
 
assuming I'm correct then:
your Chinook daughter CEM 92 = top 8% or CEM +13 and the Rampage daughter CEM 9 = bottom 9% or CEM 4

Is there a way to assign a $ Value to Cow Advantage and $ Value to Total Advantage?
 
Son of Butch":18wafrm9 said:
assuming I'm correct then:
your Chinook daughter CEM 92 = top 8% or CEM +13 and the Rampage daughter CEM 9 = bottom 9% or CEM 4

Is there a way to assign a $ Value to Cow Advantage and $ Value to Total Advantage?

I don't think think you can directly compare their raw score to angus breed percentages like that, but it gets you pretty close, or at least in the neighborhood. The Rampage son is actually my cleanup bull, and he is a +4 on his CEM so that one worked out

There are $ dollar values for the index's. On cow advantage, it's $10.90 more profit per calf for every 10 units of measure, so around $33 more profit per calf by the AI daughters. On total advantage, it's $16.60 per calf, so nearly $75 per calf difference
 
In I50k or AngusGS tests a 98 would be the 98 percentile of the breed. A lower number would be better as in a 2 would be the top 2% of the breed.
So am I understanding correctly that the Genemax numbers work the opposite?
 
When we did the Zoetis tests on our commercial herd, they also provide you with a "global" low score, high score, and average. Then states where you rank against it. Does this offer a rank vs the breed average?

I saw sires listed there. Did they use that in the equation?
 
Midtenn":3qmsk1nc said:
In I50k or AngusGS tests a 98 would be the 98 percentile of the breed. A lower number would be better as in a 2 would be the top 2% of the breed.
So am I understanding correctly that the Genemax numbers work the opposite?

That's correct. Higher is more, or better in most cases
 
NEFarmwife":1bmynji4 said:
When we did the Zoetis tests on our commercial herd, they also provide you with a "global" low score, high score, and average. Then states where you rank against it. Does this offer a rank vs the breed average?

I saw sires listed there. Did they use that in the equation?

What Zoetis test did you use on your commercial Herd? This genemax test is by Zoetis. There's no global high low and average score that I'm aware of. As I understand it, a score of 50 is just assumed to be average and higher Is better.

I don't think the sires play into the scores, I'm pretty sure they're just for sire match purposes to control inbreeding. At least that's how it's presented on the website
 
Bovine breeder":1c91u2az said:
NEFarmwife":1c91u2az said:
When we did the Zoetis tests on our commercial herd, they also provide you with a "global" low score, high score, and average. Then states where you rank against it. Does this offer a rank vs the breed average?

I saw sires listed there. Did they use that in the equation?

What Zoetis test did you use on your commercial Herd? This genemax test is by Zoetis. There's no global high low and average score that I'm aware of. As I understand it, a score of 50 is just assumed to be average and higher Is better.

I don't think the sires play into the scores, I'm pretty sure they're just for sire match purposes to control inbreeding. At least that's how it's presented on the website

We did the i50K thru Zoetis. It didn't do the advantage scores. It would tell us what our High/Low/Avg was and where they ranked amongst the others outside our group.

I could see that our marbling was above average by 14% or that our bw was below average by 5% (I'm just throwing numbers out there)... I'll have to look into this.
 
NEFarmwife":1k8bkhui said:
Bovine breeder":1k8bkhui said:
NEFarmwife":1k8bkhui said:
When we did the Zoetis tests on our commercial herd, they also provide you with a "global" low score, high score, and average. Then states where you rank against it. Does this offer a rank vs the breed average?

I saw sires listed there. Did they use that in the equation?

What Zoetis test did you use on your commercial Herd? This genemax test is by Zoetis. There's no global high low and average score that I'm aware of. As I understand it, a score of 50 is just assumed to be average and higher Is better.

I don't think the sires play into the scores, I'm pretty sure they're just for sire match purposes to control inbreeding. At least that's how it's presented on the website

We did the i50K thru Zoetis. It didn't do the advantage scores. It would tell us what our High/Low/Avg was and where they ranked amongst the others outside our group.

I could see that our marbling was above average by 14% or that our bw was below average by 5% (I'm just throwing numbers out there)... I'll have to look into this.

How much did this test cost per animal and how long did it take to get results back? I'm thinking of doing this as well... any pointers you may have?
 
Dixie2542":20kwgd0e said:
NEFarmwife":20kwgd0e said:
Bovine breeder":20kwgd0e said:
How much did this test cost per animal and how long did it take to get results back? I'm thinking of doing this as well... any pointers you may have?

It was 0.50 per blood card and $28 per test. They say 3-4 weeks for results but mine came back in 10 days. If you're going to do the sire match, you actually have to go back in on your AAA login after you send the blood cards and order the test, and manually order the sire match verification. It'll check you out with X number of those at $0. It's Kind of odd. I found it by accident or mine wouldn't have gotten it
 
Dixie2542":2lemw7dc said:
NEFarmwife":2lemw7dc said:
Bovine breeder":2lemw7dc said:
What Zoetis test did you use on your commercial Herd? This genemax test is by Zoetis. There's no global high low and average score that I'm aware of. As I understand it, a score of 50 is just assumed to be average and higher Is better.

I don't think the sires play into the scores, I'm pretty sure they're just for sire match purposes to control inbreeding. At least that's how it's presented on the website

We did the i50K thru Zoetis. It didn't do the advantage scores. It would tell us what our High/Low/Avg was and where they ranked amongst the others outside our group.

I could see that our marbling was above average by 14% or that our bw was below average by 5% (I'm just throwing numbers out there)... I'll have to look into this.

How much did this test cost per animal and how long did it take to get results back? I'm thinking of doing this as well... any pointers you may have?

The i50K was $37. Dixie, if you want to shoot me your email, I could send you last year's results so that you could see what info we were provided.

But the original OP's tests seem ideal for a herd. Ours was to test commercial bulls and use that to market them.
 
Stocker Steve":3ant86ij said:
Thanks for sharing. Lots of data. How do you plan to use it?

Sure. Glad someone else found it interesting! And Good question. All of these heifers were a result of my maternal matings. Everything mated terminal or natural service was getting sold as a feeder calf from day one. So I basically had already decided I wanted to keep these heifers. If one had done terrible on the test, I may have sold her. But to be truthful it didn't really effect my decision to keep or sell. I really just wanted a baseline to compare my cows from the next generation I was making. I will use the data to change what I look for in a bull, a little. Like I said I didn't realize CEM was a problem for me, but now I'm going to put more pressure on that when I select bulls.
 
I understand folks that insist on genetic testing on any bull they consider buying. I had assumed that folks use genetic testing to help cull a group of heifers, but that does not seem to be common for beef.

I have herd the rants that more is not better, tradeoffs are a bitch, and you need to target an optimum. Does the Advantage index analysis do this?
 
Those considering profiling commercial heifers should also check out the Igenity Beef Profile from Neogen. The GeneMax profile was developed for Angus heifers. The Igenity Beef Profile was developed from Angus, Red Angus, Hereford, Limousin, Gelbvieh, and Simmental cattle, and validated to cattle of these six breeds and crosses.

Neogen provides genomic scores on a scale from1 to 10 on sixteen traits including Calving Ease Maternal, Weaning Weight, Milk, Docility, several carcass traits, etc. The cost for this profile is $29 and includes parentage verification.

The higher the Igenity score, the more genetic potential for that trait. As someone pointed out in a previous post, a 10 isn't necessarily ideal. For example, most of us don't want our beef cows to milk too heavy, don't want cattle with too much or too little back fat, etc.

In addition to the Igenity scores, the heifers that are profiled are also ranked on a couple different indexes, which is helpful when evaluating which heifers to keep in the herd and which ones to sell.
 
So if a DNA test revealed a severe flaw or trait in a good looking heifer, you'd just breed on to pass it along?
Seems short sighted... never say never. I remember long ago others saying similar things when testing for mule foot
was first developed.
(I've never seen a mule foot calf and I sure as he// ain't gonna cull cause some test she's a carrier when I ain't never
had no problem or even seen one.)
 
Using test results for culling opens up all kinds of professional liability issues.
So I think you are probably on your own if you want to use the data for making decisions.
Recommendations are too dangerous with all the lawyers in this world.
 
In Australia with registered Angus, since the single step came in we do not get any results from our genomic testing. The only way we can see how they fared is to print out the EBV's when we collect the sample and then see how they moved with the next run of breedplan after the genomics are taken into consideration. I think this is all Angus Australia's doing so that people don't get too hung up on the actual figures of the genomic testing. The end result the EBV's are a blend of recorded data, inherited figures and the genomic results and all are important.

For commercial Angus we have Heifer Select and this reports some data to help with heifer selection.

Ken
 

Latest posts

Top