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You Would be Crazy not to Test!

PATB
Great question!
As you know, both Zoetis and GeneSEEK have updated their genomic tests.
Zoetis still uses about 50,000 SNPs, but have now trained their data set with more animal records and genotypes.
The genetic correlations for the Zoetis test range from 0.38 to 0.73. http://www.angusjournal.com/ArticlePDF/By the Numbers 03.13.pdf

GeneSeek now use about 80,000 SNPs. The genetic correlations for the GeneSeek test range from 0.60 to 0.70 for most traits, except milk which is at 0.4 and calving ease direct which is at 0.34. http://www.angus.org/AGI/GenomicEnhancedEPDsMay2013.pdf

So, the accuracy differences appear to be pretty small.

Both tests cost $75. If you add an AM, NH, or CA test to the Zoetis test, you pay $23.00. If you add an AM, NH, or CA test to the GeneSeek test, you pay $8.00.
https://www.angusonline.org/AGI/AgiDnaPricing.aspx
 
gcreekrch-
I live in Columbia, MO. I hope to close on a farm house outside Sturgeon, MO with 12 acres in the next few weeks. After I own that small farm I hope to purchase some cattle. Until recently, I was a poor student trying to support a family. I am at least the 4th generation in my family to raise seedstock and commercial cattle, if you count the cattle I owned in my youth. I hope that is enough personal information for you! :D

I'm not talking about perfect cattle. I'm talking about cattle that are better and more effective than the previous generation. I'm talking about making a better decision when we purchase our next bred heifer or clean-up bull. I'm talking about shortening the generation interval so beef breeds can make genetic changes more rapidly.
 
HerefordGuy said:
gcreekrch-
I live in Columbia, MO. I hope to close on a farm house outside Sturgeon, MO with 12 acres in the next few weeks. After I own that small farm I hope to purchase some cattle. Until recently, I was a poor student trying to support a family. I am at least the 4th generation in my family to raise seedstock and commercial cattle, if you count the cattle I owned in my youth. I hope that is enough personal information for you! :D

I'm not talking about perfect cattle. I'm talking about cattle that are better and more effective than the previous generation. I'm talking about making a better decision when we purchase our next bred heifer or clean-up bull. I'm talking about shortening the generation interval so beef breeds can make genetic changes more rapidly.
Click to expand...

Thanks, my best wishes to your endeavors.

I started with nothing and still have most of it left although we have added a few acres and cattle over the last 33 years.

I have purchased a lot of our herdsires from one large seedstock producer since 1993. The rest we have raised from our own commercial herd. None of these bulls ever see a show ring and I know their birth, weaning and performance weights along with their birthday. I also know what the "type" is of the herd they come from. Nothing more concerns me.

We sell a few loads of calves every year at premium prices to repeat buyers that claim our cattle perform well and don't get sick. Our ideal is to produce moderate, thick, broody females that need little intervention from us other than nutrition for replacements and let the steer end look after itself. So far it's not working too bad.

I personally don't see the need to change the type of cattle that work here. Others sometime like to follow the lastest, greatest propoganda in a mad rush to keep up with "progress". The 50's and the 70's show how well that worked for most other than those who started the fads. :wink:

When you produce a cow that will live here on snowballs and promises while bringing home a good calf every fall you will have a good chance of getting my interest. Until then I'll just wait and watch. :D

You will find Tom Lasiter's quote about keeping it simple has a lot of merit as time passes. :D
 
HerefordGuy said:
gcreekrch-
I live in Columbia, MO. I hope to close on a farm house outside Sturgeon, MO with 12 acres in the next few weeks. After I own that small farm I hope to purchase some cattle. Until recently, I was a poor student trying to support a family. I am at least the 4th generation in my family to raise seedstock and commercial cattle, if you count the cattle I owned in my youth. I hope that is enough personal information for you! :D

I'm not talking about perfect cattle. I'm talking about cattle that are better and more effective than the previous generation. I'm talking about making a better decision when we purchase our next bred heifer or clean-up bull. I'm talking about shortening the generation interval so beef breeds can make genetic changes more rapidly.
Click to expand...

Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket and purchasing your "next bred heifer," go for less expense per individual and get at least several head of uniform looking bred heifers with eye appeal. Some of them are bound to pan out, and then you will be off and running with a herd instead of individual outliers with no predictability. If I look at someone's cattle, it is far more impressive to find quality in numbers rather than a real eye-popper here and there with a lot of mediocrity in between.
 
genetic progress seems more about improvement by eliminating germ lines.

the theoretical maximum has been reduced by eliminating them, but it looks good in the short run because you are recombining higher scoring individuals. as no one keeps breeding the unfavored bulls or even collecting them, diversity is lost all in the name of we need to make progress fast.

it seems like craig ventner is driving adoption of these markers and his silly genome assembly bs while he cheated off the public effort and never bother to finish difficult regions of the genome.
 
I have read several different articles saying these companies, scientists, and professors want us to do these tests on replacement heifers and eliminate/cull the ones that don't fit. To me that is wrong. Their are to many other things to cull for like quality, soundness, flesh ability, production, etc. If we were to cull for both, their may not being any left to keep, or if we were to cull the ones that the #'s don't fit and keep the other ones, you are keeping the bottom end phenotyically.

We haven't done it yet, but I think in the near future we will be testing all our replacement heifers, and then use that info. When we breed them, we can be a little more accurate when choosing a mating. We won't mate by numbers alone, but we will take the bulls we plan on using and make a little better decision on which bull gets which heifer. A better plan seems to end up with better results.
 
HerefordGuy said:
gcreekrch-
I live in Columbia, MO. I hope to close on a farm house outside Sturgeon, MO with 12 acres in the next few weeks. After I own that small farm I hope to purchase some cattle. Until recently, I was a poor student trying to support a family. I am at least the 4th generation in my family to raise seedstock and commercial cattle, if you count the cattle I owned in my youth. I hope that is enough personal information for you! :D

I'm not talking about perfect cattle. I'm talking about cattle that are better and more effective than the previous generation. I'm talking about making a better decision when we purchase our next bred heifer or clean-up bull. I'm talking about shortening the generation interval so beef breeds can make genetic changes more rapidly.
Click to expand...

12 ACRES UFFDA.
 

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