Reading Time: < 1 minute The University of Alberta’s Genomic Prediction Project is developing tools to predict the feed efficiency and carcass traits on any beef cattle in a herd, including crossbred animals. It costs participants $25 per animal to be genotyped with about 100,000 DNA markers, which will be used to provide a report. The report, to be available […] Read more
University of Alberta conducting genomic prediction trial
Beef Breeds Council becomes arm of CCA
Cattle genetics body now a division of Canadian Cattlemen's Association
The market development group representing Canada’s beef cattle seedstock sector has formally merged into the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA). The association on Friday announced the Canadian Beef Breeds Council (CBBC) has officially joined the Beef Cattle Research Council and Canfax among the divisions of the CCA. The move follows a cost-benefit review by an advisory […] Read more
Supercluster backing canola protein production
The federally-backed research and development “supercluster” set up to boost Canada’s protein industries is funding work to wring more and better proteins out of canola seed. In Saskatoon on Wednesday, federal Industry Minister Navdeep Bains announced the Protein Industries Canada (PIC) supercluster has approved a new $27.6 million project to breed high-protein canola hybrids for […] Read more
Numbers don’t lie — but can mislead if there’s not enough of them
When it comes to making decisions on the farm, the more data the better — especially if that data comes from other farms
Reading Time: 5 minutes Did you know that there’s a direct correlation between the divorce rate in Maine and the per capita consumption of margarine in the States? It’s true. If you chart the data on a graph going back a decade or two, one line rises and falls with the other. That’s the problem with data like this […] Read more
Wheat breeders get a cheat sheet
‘Breeder chip’ doesn’t make the process faster but ups the odds of hitting pay dirt
Reading Time: 4 minutes Plant breeding is strictly a numbers game — but researchers have found a way to improve the odds with help from a new tool called a ‘breeder chip.’ “Breeding is like a lottery. The more tickets you buy, the greater the chance of success,” said Curtis Pozniak, a professor of plant sciences and wheat breeder […] Read more
The next frontier of plant breeding
Advocates say game-changing genome editing is completely different from genetic engineering — but will the public agree?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Farmers need to get in front of the messaging about genome editing technology — or risk seeing it suffer the same fate as GMOs in the court of public opinion. That’s the warning from the chair of Alberta Wheat’s research committee, who is one of many who fears genome editing is going to get lumped […] Read more
Single-trait selection can be too much of a good thing
Dairy and beef cattle are amazingly adaptive, but problems arise when we breed for just one trait
Reading Time: 3 minutes As I have travelled the world I have had the privilege of seeing many different breeds of cattle. They come in every colour and shape, from the stocky Belgium Blue to the sleek Zebu. Some cattle can be found on streets eating food waste; others are beasts of burden working fields and transporting goods; the […] Read more
Does the ‘appetite gene’ make for better cattle?
A genetic mutation in cattle makes gains with a little help from its friends
Reading Time: 5 minutes Somewhat controversial in the early days of cattle genetic coding, leptin — a hormone that regulates appetite in animals and humans — is making a comeback among some cattle breeders. The difference this time is its common inclusion in a broad panel of beneficial genes tested in cattle, said Stephen Moore, a leading researcher in […] Read more
Researchers take aim at chronic wasting disease
Finding out why prions misfold is key to finding a treatment for CWD and BSE
Reading Time: 2 minutes Chronic wasting disease (CWD) threatens populations of mule deer, whitetail deer, and elk throughout the Prairies, and scientists are working hard towards finding a solution Like bovine spongiform encephalopathy, CWD is caused by the misfolding of a mysterious class of proteins known as prions. While researchers are not clear on the function of prions in […] Read more
The perfect cow: Two different approaches to getting the best genetics
At CL Ranch, it’s all about breeding for observable traits, but genomics is the foundation for Rocky Mountain Holsteins
Reading Time: 4 minutes You won’t find a single Angus cow in Cherie Copithorne-Barnes’ herd. But then again, you won’t find any other specific breeds either. “One of the philosophies that we have here at CL Ranch is we’re not breed specific — we’re trait specific,” said Copithorne-Barnes, CEO of the 23,000-acre ranch near Calgary. “We are synthetic cross-breeders, […] Read more
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