Definition of the Subject
The beef cattle industry represents a diverse and unique sector of animal agriculture with varying breeds, production climates, and marketing objectives. The industry is not vertically integrated and thus breeding and selection decisions are controlled by individual farmers and ranchers. In the United States, the average herd size is less than 30 cows. However, there exists sound tools from which to make genetic selection decisions to ultimately make genetic change and improve profitability. These tools, some of which have been utilized for decades, are available to all beef cattle producers. The utilization of current genetic selection tools can aid in the profitability and ultimately the sustainability of beef enterprises.
Introduction
The beef cattle industry is comprised of seedstock and commercial producers. In general, genetic improvement, or accumulation of breeding value, occurs in the seedstock sector and flows to the commercial industry via the...
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Abbreviations
- Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) accuracy:
-
A metric of accuracy that is more conservative than true accuracy. It is linearly related to prediction error variance.
- Bio-economic index:
-
A collection of EPD that are relevant to a breeding objective whereby each EPD is multiplied by an economic weight.
- Composite:
-
A crossbred animal. Generally thought of in terms of a pedigreed seedstock animal that is a cross of two or more breeds.
- Expected progeny difference:
-
Equivalent to half of a breeding value.
- Molecular breeding value:
-
The sum of marker effects multiplied by the number of copies of a given marker.
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Spangler, M.L. (2013). Breeding in Beef Cattle . In: Christou, P., Savin, R., Costa-Pierce, B.A., Misztal, I., Whitelaw, C.B.A. (eds) Sustainable Food Production. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5797-8_339
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