Performance Line
What are some Selection Tools Offered for your Herd Management?
By Tonya Amen, National Center for Beef Excellence
Many of you have implemented management practices focused on genetic improvement in your herds. These include the selection decisions you make when choosing bulls and replacement females, the choices you make when deciding which bull to use on which female, and the procedures you have in place to take weights and measures for use in the bi-annual National Cattle Evaluation. Many of you may already have management practices in place for DNA testing, but it does deserve some attention.
and password. Along the lefthand side of the screen, locate the section called Ranch / Person and then select the DNA option under Herd Mgmt( Figure 1).
From the DNA option, you can order sample kits, order tests, view and manage your orders, find probable genetic condition carriers in your herd, and many other DNA-testing related items. To order test kits, select the Order Supplies tab on the far right side of the screen( Figure 2). Blood, hair, and tissue are the three types of collectors that are available, chose the one that you are most comfortable with. I would recommend always having some collectors on-hand so they are ready when the cattle are handy for pulling a sample.
As part of your management practices, I would suggest that you add choosing a time to pull a sample on every animal and keeping those samples in an archive on your farm or ranch. Just make sure the location is dry and out of direct sunlight. Properly stored samples should last for years, though TSU samples
should be frozen after a year.
When the time comes to place an order for a test, you’ ll need to navigate to the DNA Order Request tab. From here, you enter the test type and registration number for the animal you wish to test. For parentage verification, you’ ll also need to include the registration number for the
most likely sire and dam.
There are three primary ways DNA testing is currently used in the cattle industry: 1) for parent verification 2) testing for carriers of recessive genetic conditions 3) testing for use in genomicallyenhanced EPDs( GE-EPD). The reasons for parent verification and genetic condition testing
Figure 1
To get the process started, you need to have sample collectors on-hand. You can order test kits by logging in to the Digital Beef site( https:// limousin. digitalbeef. com /) with your member code
16 | MAY 2018
Figure 2