Why Genomics Will Be the Future of EPDs

[Bright Raven]

https://www.neogen.com/en/geneseek-announces-next-generation-of-dna-technology-geneseek-genomic-profiler-bovine-hd

Thank you. I appreciate that. A glance tells me it is good info. I want to do that this fall.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

They will keep your samples on file. So if you need a test run for the breed ass. you will already have a sample there.

 

[artesianspringsfarm]

I acknowledge your skepticism. I will only say, they go hand in hand.

If only we could hold you to that "only." :lol:

There is a lot of negativity surrounding this subject. I often wonder if folks don't want EPDs to work.

Not a matter of "want". Like CP said, I also watched the dairy industry go from relying on progeny results to create indexes to relying on genomic testing. The main people that were excited were large scale dairies that didnt want to take the time to consider phenotype and actually looking at animals. Now I see the same thing on here all day where someone thinks they can mate a -2 sire to a +2 sire and simple as that, the math works. Only problem is, its not that simple and genomic testing does not change that. Prepotency and a focus on phenotype are still the best ways to predictably and reliably get what you intend to out of a mating.

 

[True Grit Farms]

I see that when I look at my brothers and kids. Had my oldest tested to make sure he was mine.

That begs the question, whose do you think he was? :lol: :hide:

Since my brother married her, I was hoping him.

 

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

Cowpol - that is how ASA explains it.
"The traits show how many progeny records it takes for an animal without genomics to have the same BIF accuracy as the young animal with genomics (but no progeny). In other words, EPD on a genotyped 1-month-old calf will be as accurate as an animal with birth weights on 21 calves, weaning weights on 22 calves, etc."
ASA gives us all the traits & how many calves a DNA is equal to. I had that info in my last newsletter.

You talk about your newsletter occasionally. Is there a place to subscribe to that? Yes, you're sim but we are all cattlemen and women and I do enjoy your educated responses.

I put out a newsletter 5 times a year for the NY Simmental Assn. Been doing it for over 25 years.
just email me your email address ([email protected]) I have started posting a link to my newsletter on Beginners page. Most of what is in it has to do with BEEF, not just Simmental. I would be glad to add your email address to my blast.

The ASA has been doing a carcass program for maybe ?? 20 years. Get large herds to breed to specific bulls (enrolled in the carcass program) and they are followed from birth to rail. They generally have university students there to help calve out the cows so that all the data is collected.

 

[Ebenezer]

The size of the bovine genome is 3 Gb (3 billion base pairs). It contains approximately 22,000 genes...

The number used for an EPD represents the average expected different on a trait or an index. The range of expected differences still exists. With higher accuracy the range is smaller. That is pretty basic stuff. Where the unknown comes in on a heavy note is what are the rest of the DNA doing as it come in and mix with DNA of another animal at conception. There are effected on parents that we have discussed prior and there is also entropy effects with genetic noise, incomplete transfer, mutations, ... All of these are part of a breeding selection process and can create problems of accuracy to hit the average EPD numbers.

I do not doubt that progress will be made on many levels but I do not believe that all unknowns of individual matings will ever disappear. I do not believe that all full sibs will ever be exactly alike. Even with tight linebreeding the diversity oft he next generation allows diversity, selection potential and a means to judge the need to cull.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

No two of any thing is exactly the same.