National Ag News
Gene by environment cattle research
Research is underway to match cow genetics to their environment, to increase cattle producers’ profits. The University of Missouri is leading the USDA-funded study. MU assistant professor Jared Decker tells Brownfield Ag News, “Previously all of our genetic evaluations have been on a national basis. So, we create one number for a bull that’s for the entire U.S. Well, the production environment here in Missouri can be quite challenging when we think about the heat, the humidity, the fescue toxicity that we run into.”
Decker tells Brownfield the goal of the multi-state research is to create tailored and specific genomic predictions based on environment, “We’re really working with producers at the farm level to collect data and get the information we need to really try to tease apart these gene-by-environment interactions.”
Decker says they’re using records going back as far as 30 years from breed organizations and more recent data collections,”Using that genotype data that has been collected for genomic-enhanced EPDs over the last 10 years.”
The University of Missouri is leading the study and the other schools participating include Iowa State, South Dakota State, Texas A&M and the University of Arkansas.
Continue reading Gene by environment cattle research at Brownfield Ag News.
