Ask the Expert Breeding and GeneticsTest my heifers on genomics?

Test my heifers on genomics?

Alta Genetics

May 18th 2011

Should I genomic test all my heifers? Is anyone doing this?

Nate Zwald

United States

Can you justify the investment?

May 24th 2011

Let's say you have 1000 heifers - then it will cost ~$40,000 to test all of your heifers. To justify this or any investment, you have to look at how you can return a profit on this investment. There are clearly strategies where ranking your heifers, and making different management decisions depending on their rank is a good decision. For example, using sexed semen on the top heifers, and culling/selling the bottom ranking heifers generally makes good economic sense. However, in situations where good, accurate, and complete identificiation exists, you don't need to genomic test your animals to obtain a ranking for your animals. When good ID exists, you can generally only justify the initial investment if you are going to do embryo transfer work on the top animals. This is further explained in an article which can be found at:
http://www.progressivedairy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5573:should-you-get-your-females-genomic-tested&catid=47:ai-and-breeding&Itemid=73

Certainly do not test just to 'see how good your genetics are or how you rank', as this can be done easily with parent averages.

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