AHA is striving to get more cows genotyped to help allow the implementation of genomic information into the models of some of the maternal traits.
To date, there are over 46,000 genotypes available for use in genetic evaluation. However, only 20.5% of those genotypes are from eligible females. This prevented the AHA from implementing genomic information into some key economic maternal traits such as Sustained Cow Fertility, Milk and Maternal Calving Ease. The solution is to increase the number of genotypes on cows already in production raising calves.
Check out these five reasons to DNA test your cowherd.
- Manage and market your cattle with more confidence
- Transparency and trust are two key things when marketing your herd. The more information you have to offer on your animals, the better! Knowing the animal is free of abnormalities and being able to show it’s GE-EPD’s is always beneficial.
- Help the AHA implement genomic information into key economic maternal traits
- Strengthen traits such as Sustained Cow Fertility, Milk, and Maternal Calving Ease by DNA testing your herd. The more genotypes on inventory, the more reliable the numbers are.
- Obtaining female DNA helps with determining parentage on future calves
- DNA collected with this project can be used in the future to parent verify calves. This makes it easier to AI permit your bulls or to check parentage on any calves that you might be questioning the pedigree on.
- Test for genetic abnormalities
- By DNA testing your herd, you can find out which animals might be a carrier of the hypotrichosis, dilutor or idiopathic epilepsy genes, to help make better informed breeding decisions.
- Offered at a lower price from now until December 31, 2018
- Test every female in the (already billed) inventory of your choice, for only $20 per head. This special price won’t last long!
