Over 60 Alberta producers with more than 10,000 animals have already committed to a newly-announced $2.2 million project to drive adoption of genetic selection tools in Alberta’s livestock sector.
The project, which is funded by Results Driven Agricultural Research (RDAR) through a federal-provincial cost-share program, is meant to enhance selected traits such as feed efficiency, disease resistance, female fertility and longevity in livestock.
Livestock Gentec, an Alberta Innovates centre at UAlberta, will leverage selection tools based on extensive genomic, feed efficiency and meat quality data collected from commercial cattle across Canada.
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It will engage with beef producers, industry service providers and regional producer associations to transform genomic data into decision-making information that producers can use directly, said a June 3 RDAR release.
Improving hybrid vigour, meaning offspring possess more desirable traits than their parents, is worth $160 per cow per year according to genomic validation studies on Alberta’s commercial cows.
Improving that vigour for Canada’s over 3.5 million beef cattle would equate to over $200 million for the beef sector, benefiting not just producers but the entire supply chain, said the release.
“The adoption of genomic tools by the Canadian beef industry is critical to its competitiveness, profitability and sustainability,” wrote Livestock Genetec CEO John Basarab, who also serves as an RDAR professor at UAlberta.
“This four-year project delivered by RDAR under Sustainable CAP provides beef producers with an incentive to start or continue their journey of using genomics and data driven genetic decisions to improve their profit and environmental sustainability in a changing climate.”
The mandate of RDAR is to target strategic investments in producer-led, results-driven ag research. The non-profit corporation’s funding comes from the Governments of Alberta and Canada through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (Sustainable CAP).
