Latest News From Dairy Genetics

As beef-on-dairy animals within the feedlot system continue to rise, feedlots are craving two key pieces of information to help ensure these crossbred cattle thrive.

No matter when beef cross calves are being sold, steps can be taken to make them more marketable.

Beef cross calves are currently generating healthy profits for dairies. They also are a welcome addition to the beef supply chain, according to Dr. Zeb Gray, Beef Technical Feedlot Specialist with Diamond V.

Beef-on-dairy is arguably the most significant advancement for America’s beef industry in a generation.

Recently, the board of directors from Select Sires four individual cooperatives voted unanimously to merge together as one full-service A.I. cooperative.

One Holstein sire born in 1962, Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief, sired 16,000 daughters, 500,000 great-granddaughters, and more than 2 million great-granddaughters.

The dairy cattle of the future may be more comfortable and less susceptible to heat stress thanks to genetic alterations to change the physical characteristics and color of their hair coats.

The Holstein breed is wrestling with the phenomenon of a newly identified genetic defect for Recumbency.

With drought and production costs pushing the native beef population to a record low, beef-on-dairy has a huge opportunity to keep the feedlots and processors at full capacity.

While dairy producers are rapidly embracing the concept of using beef semen to freshen their cows, the resulting crossbred calves are proving both a valuable opportunity and a challenge for the U.S. beef industry.

Compared to Holsteins, is calving time with crossbreds more difficult in terms of calf weight, stillbirth, gestation length, or dystocia?

The increased cost associated with raising heifers has made producers retool their thinking. Earlier management decisions are happening on dairies, with a more dialed-in, strategic breeding philosophy being adapted.

With the cost of inflation impacting every corner of a dairy, the producer’s breeding strategy has been forced to become finetuned. More and more producers are keeping just enough replacements to fill the pipeline,.

This first-of-its-kind decision by FDA opens the door for progress on other genome editing efforts.

Have you ever had a cow come down with a disease while she was pregnant? Probably so. But does that illness impact the calf? Maybe not.

To keep an efficient and profitable reproductive program humming, proactive reproductive management practices need to be practiced daily.

Over-conditioned cows that lose weight after calving subsequently have lower fertility, produce fewer quality embryos and face higher rates of health problems.

Moving to 100% polled genetics is an air-tight method of dispelling consumer concerns about dehorning pain. But the wheels of genetic progress turn relatively slowly in cattle.

Reproduction clicks along like a well-oiled machine at Schanbacher Acres near Atkins, Iowa, thanks in part to the farm’s routine use of blood pregnancy tests for the past 17 years.

Genetic sequencing allows for the identification of the specific DNA footprint of a disease, which will allow for improved disease surveillance when illness is detected in a herd.

If the industry could put together all the best parts of the genome, significant production increases could be made.

Farmers swipe right on Tudder mobile app to find matches for cows.

Workshop will review latest topics in dairy genomics

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a notice that Canada has updated its ID requirements for breeding cattle entering the country from the United States.