Braunvieh_World_Winter_2022

The BEST of BOTH Worlds How Braunvieh Seedstock Producers Can Work More Closely with

Commercial Cattlemen Through IGS By Micky Burch, Braunvieh World Managing Editor

By definition, collaboration is the process of two or more people, entities or organizations working together to complete a task or achieve a goal. International Genetic Solutions (IGS), Bozeman, Mont., has taken that defini- tion to a new level by partnering with almost 20 differ- ent breed associations to create and manage the largest multi-breed beef cattle evaluation in the world, using the most advanced technology to combine data and compare expected progeny differences (EPDs) across breeds for ef- fective herd improvement. But what does all that mean for a single Braunvieh breeder who has a small herd? How does that benefit the commercial producer who buys a Braunvieh bull once every couple of years? Why did the Braunvieh Association of America (BAA) Board of Directors believe joining IGS as a partner was in the best interest of the association and its members? The short answer: Because the commercial cattle producer is at the heart of IGS – just like they’re at the heart of the BAA. Next, let’s dive into the long answer. Expanding EPDs Essentially, IGS is calculating EPDs across multiple breeds to account for different breed effects and hetero- sis instead of calculating EPDs from just a single breed. Many producers, influencers and cattle industry profes- sionals recognize the value and benefits of crossbreed- ing, especially heterosis (also known as hybrid vigor). Heterosis, which occurs when two different purebred breeds are mated together, is the superior performance of a crossbred offspring over the average performance of the purebred parent breeds. Another advantage of crossbreeding is breed comple- mentarity, or the act of mutually supplying traits each breed may not have. Breed complementarity offers pro- ducers the potential to compensate for a shortcoming in one breed’s trait performance with the superior trait at- tributes of another breed. Generally, these crosses result in the best of both worlds – an offspring that has optimal levels of both breed characteristics. To take advantage of breed complementarity, producers need information about the differences between breeds for specific traits. Where a single animal is concerned, an EPD takes all of the information available, including that animal’s DNA for a specific trait, like birthweight, into a calculation to pre- dict the performance of that animal’s offspring – not the performance of the animal itself. As information is added, EPD accuracy increases. Every animal is the result of the DNA they inherit from their parents interacting with their environment. The actual appearance or measurable feature of an animal or an individual animal trait is called phenotype, and perfor- mance measurements can be taken based on phenotype

to compare animals managed in the same environment or contemporary group (animals of the same gender, age and raised in the same management conditions). When devel- oping the models for genetic evaluation, tremendous focus is placed on how to account for non-genetic influences, like environment or contemporary group, on a trait. It’s important to remember that the phenotypic per- formance of an individual is only one indication of what they could possibly pass on to their offspring. In the end, using EPDs to select for traits of interest will dramatically increase the rate of improvement, especially when com- pared to using phenotypic selection. One point of interest is the biological law of indepen- dent assortment, which states each parent possesses two versions of a gene, but only one version is passed on to their progeny. Which of the two genes that is passed on to each individual progeny is completely random, and this randomness is what leads to genetic diversity. Consider calves that are full sibs: If we only have pedigree infor- mation, we’d have to assume they share 100 percent of their genes, but there are differences in their phenotypic performance. In the absence of performance data, these two animals would have the same EPDs, but once per- formance or DNA information is included in the evalu- ation, their EPDs will begin to deviate from each other as the evaluation begins to account for the difference in the genes inherited from their parents. The next step in genetic evaluation, genomic testing has become an industry standard. When an animal has ge-

Continued on page 16 Seedstock breeders, especially Braunvieh breeders, have for years identified the commercial cattle producer as their No. 1 customer. It just so happens that same person is the primary focus of IGS.

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Braunvieh World  Winter 2022