Tomorrow’s cattle and beef industry is being made today—the Beef Improvement Federation is seeing to it!
The Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) held its annual meeting in Brookings, SD on June 18-21. It was hosted by South Dakota State University and South Dakota Beef Breeds Council. With 500 producers, allied support industry personnel, and academics in attendance, it was a rousing success.
The convention featured general sessions in the mornings and concurrent committee meetings in in the afternoon. The topics were broad ranging, covering the latest science relating to genetic improvement and evaluation. But, most important, were changes in how the BIF Guidelines will be presented in the future, as well as a more holistic focus on all heritable traits, not just growth and carcass.
Guidelines via wiki
BIF President Lee Leachman is unique in that his father also served in that position. He credits the biggest accomplishment during his tenure being the formulation of the new BIF Guidelines.
One of the organization’s primary stated purposes is to “Develop a way of standardizing all performance records across beef cattle breeds both nationally and internationally.” This has traditionally been in the form of a printed Guidelines book of which there has been nine editions. The latest version was overseen by BIF board member, Dr. Lauren Hyde from the American Simmental Association, and will be a web-based system. Hyde enlisted the assistance of a variety of people with expertise on the various subjects to produce a comprehensive set of Guidelines.
The platform they choose for the Guidelines is wiki, a website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users. It covers all aspects of performance and genetics. Examples range from how to adjust weights, performance reporting systems, and the models to do genetic predictions.
Leachman says the new system will significantly improve access to the information and will allow searches based on key words. He is also excited that it has essential reading lists for those who want to delve deeper into a subject. The system will be dynamic, constantly being updated and refined. Also, throughout the document are links where a producer or academic can go to get further information or details on a subject.
Parts of the new BIF Guidelines were presented in all six of the committee meetings where they demonstrated the wiki information that applied to the thrust of the particular committee. The new format was very well received and seen as an improvement over the printed books. The live system is expected to be brought online shortly. Geneticist Dr. Bruce Golden of Theta Solutions will be overseeing it going forward.
Genetics improvement
The other primary mission of BIF from its inception in 1968 is to connect science and industry to improve beef cattle genetics. This is the primary reason for the annual conventions. This is summed up in BIF’s goal of “Continuing the tradition of using science to benefit producers, the BIF is now the capstone for developing programs for improving the efficiency, profitability and sustainability of beef production.”
Leachman summarized the genetics for profitability as: growth; carcass; reproduction; feed intake/costs; and health. Traditionally, genetic predictions have focused on the first two—growth and carcass—but the future of genetic improvement must involve all five of these areas.
Leachman stressed the various traits between these general areas are often antagonistic, so it is important to consider all areas simultaneously. Otherwise, a producer may be making progress in growth and carcass traits while losing ground in the others.
In this vein, much of the convention dealt with genetic aspects related to reproduction, costs, and health. All these are heritable so genetic progress can be made on them. The convention had various speakers tackle these topics, which included the difficulty of gathering phenotypes in quantity on many of these traits.
The power of genomics to objectively characterize reproduction, costs and health was also emphasized. Economic models consistently list reproduction as the most important trait, but many breed associations have yet to come out with a Stayability EPD (expected progeny difference).
Breed associations using a BIF inventory-based reporting system are the keys to reproductive data collection. Even though inventory-based systems have existed since 1995 when Red Angus unveiled its Total Herd Reporting program, they have not been fully implemented by all associations.
Dr. Mark Allen of Trans Ova Genetics, presenting during the general session, discussed technologies that can improve reproductive performance and rate of genetic progress. This included everything from the tried and true like artificial insemination, to the latest developments in areas like invitro embryo production.
On health, the latest research on genetic predictions for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) and pulmonary hypertension were covered. BRD has become a priority for the research community as it alone is thought to cost the industry up to $1 billion annually through cattle morbidity, mortality, and loss of production. Despite this, breed associations are not yet producing genetic predictions for it.
With reports of sudden deaths of market-ready steers due to pulmonary hypertension rising every year, making cattle less susceptible through genetic selection is also an industry priority. Angus has come out with a research EPD on the indicator trait—pulmonary arterial pressure or PAP—but most associations have yet to start collecting data.
On the traditional traits related to growth, Golden gave a particularly interesting presentation on the data filters he has developed. The filters identify and remove, prior to a genetic analysis, data with non-biological, non-heritable properties. The example given was birth weight. When guessed rather than measured, birth weight records will not have a normal biological distribution. Because of their non-biological properties, the filters easily recognize and remove the guessed data prior to the genetic analysis.
The other example Golden gave was data derived from hoof tapes, which are tools used to estimate birth weights by hoof size rather than by directly weighing a calf. He has developed systems to use the proper heritability for data gathered by hoof tapes, which have a somewhat different distribution from calves that have been weighed with scales.
Leachman summed up this year’s gathering, saying:
“The convention is a major place to exchange ideas and formulate strategies for the future of the industry. The group of breeders who participate in this process with the goal of profitability will have advantage in the future.” — Dr. Bob Hough,WLJ correspondent
