Neogen launches Igenity® Feeder, a Commercial DNA Sorting Tool
Neogen Corporation announces the launch of Igenity® Feeder, a DNA tool designed to assist cattle producers in the stocker and backgrounder phase to rank and manage feeder cattle according to their genetic potential for carcass traits.
After several years of delivery and increasing industry awareness, the Igenity Terminal Index (ITI) is now available in a new format as Igenity Feeder to measure the genetic potential for economically relevant carcass traits.
“With Igenity Feeder we are reaching a critical audience in the beef supply chain by offering a DNA tool they can utilize to make better decisions in the care, nutrition and marketing of their feeder calves,” said John Adent, Neogen’s president and chief executive officer. “By extension, producers will use the genomic information to tell the story of their calves to the feedlot level.”
“The genomics team is united by our commitment to deliver accurate, affordable DNA testing to beef producers,” said Marylinn Munson, Neogen’s vice president of genomics. “We truly believe our genomic solutions are a good fit at every step of the beef supply chain by helping producers manage risk and prove value.”
Igenity Feeder leverages the ITI and growth profiling information from thousands of commercial fed cattle into an accurate genomic tool to help producers’ sort lots of cattle and enhance profitability. Using Igenity Feeder combined with an animal’s enrollment weight and sex, provides new opportunity for grouping of animals into outcome groups.
Through Igenity Feeder, producers can ship or sell load lots of cattle with increased uniformity and differentiate their cattle on sale day. Using the ITI, they can accurately and quickly sort calves based on their ability to excel to end point.
“Igenity Feeder provides producers the ability to sort and rank feeder cattle according to their genetic predisposition to perform within the feedlot,” said Dr. Jamie Courter, Neogen’s beef product manager. “Driven by many economically relevant traits such as hot carcass weight, rib eye area, and marbling, the ITI is proven to help differentiate profitability in a feedlot setting.”
With a tissue sampling unit (TSU) taken at enrollment, Igenity Feeder will work in unison with Neogen’s free feeder calf marketing program, Igenity Branded.
“When Igenity Branded was first launched, it made perfect sense to qualify steer calves for the program based on the genetic potential of heifers within the same calf crop,” said Courter. “While that information is useful, Igenity Feeder not only provides the seller with the ability to group lots of cattle with increased uniformity, but it also gives a buyer insight into the future performance on an individual animal basis.”
Igenity Feeder for stocker and backgrounder operators is now available. To learn how you can implement Igenity Feeder cattle call 877/443-6489 or go to IgenityBeef.com.
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