36 NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN February 2024 PRODUCTION LEVERAGING COMMERCIAL DATA LISA BARD, NEBRASKA CATTLEMAN EDITOR CONTINUED ON PAGE 118 Q: What is the Genetic Prediction Workshop and its purpose? A: This workshop is held about every five years and is a think tank of sorts to discuss new technologies with a smaller audience than the annual BIF Symposium, given the technical nature of the talks. Our goal is to discuss new and emerging technologies, and how to best utilize and/or implement them for the betterment of the industry. Q: There was a lot of discussion on low-pass sequencing. What is that and why is it relevant? A: Using a process called low-pass sequencing – a more cost-effective means of generating much more genomic data – we can potentially increase the accuracy of expected progeny differences (EPDs) by exploiting regions in the genome that are responsible for genetic and phenotypic differences among animals. Using genomic information from commercial animals allows us to establish kinship among animals and connect them to their seedstock relatives, which is necessary to use commercial animal records in routine genetic evaluations. Q: What will this technology and process do for the commercial sector? A: Data that the beef industry uses to generate EPDs comes almost exclusively from seedstock herds, but the traits that we really want to improve through genetics are generally only observed in commercial cow herds and feedlots. Carcass data, health data and susAT THE RECENT BEEF IMPROVEMENT FEDERATION (BIF) 12th Genetic Prediction Workshop, held Dec. 18-20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo., Matt Spangler, Ph.D., beef cattle genetics professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, gave a presentation on leveraging commercial data to improve selection and management decisions. We talked with Spangler a week later to get his take on this topic along with the purpose and outcomes of the Genetic Prediction Workshop. tained cow fertility are a few examples. Low-cost genomic technologies could allow us to utilize data from commercial herds and create EPDs for traits that are truly profit drivers for the commercial industry. Technologies like low-pass sequencing offer an exciting opportunity should the cost decline enough to make it feasible at scale. Q: How will this improve the information for commercial producers? A: Whatever we return to the commercial industry needs to be useful in the management and marketing of commercial beef animals. For commercial producers, having predictions of phenotypic merit, and not just genetic merit, would be useful. I see the primary deliverable as an index or an array of indexes that relate to specific breeding, management or marketing objectives, but they must relate to the commercial sector and be simple and easy to use. Q: What is preventing the commercial sector from using the data that is there? A: I think that in large part, we’ve made it too hard. We’ve given them so much to use to make a decision that they don’t use any of it. Also, if commercial producers are buying good genetics, then they, in turn, should be rewarded for that, which requires the next sector to pay them for what their cattle are worth. When there is market failure, it discourages the use of genetic tools to improve traits such as carcass merit when an enterprise sells at weaning. Q: What were the challenges and opportunities addressed in the workshop? A: There were two primary challenges addressed: Using low-pass, whole-genome sequence data to improve the accuracy of EPDs and the challenges/ benefits of utilizing commercial data in the calculation of EPDs. Both of these challenges represent “big data” problems, but problems that are indeed solvable. Both directly tie to the overarching goal of genetic improvement – to improve sustainability, which explicitly includes profitability, of commercial cattle producers. Providing tools to commercial cattle producers that they can use to make the best selection and management decisions is the ultimate goal. To bring both of these opportunities to fruition will take a large, concerted effort by the beef industry. Q: If this sequencing process and data is not currently viable, why does it matter? A: For anything new to move forward, people need to be thinking about it and that’s what this meeting did – increased awareness and allowed an opportunity for discussion. The “new” is low-pass sequencing for genomic evaluation. Eventually, low-pass sequencing would replace the SNP chip technology to create the genomic data that are used in genetic evaluations. In time, the price point will be lower and we should be able to increase EPD accuracy due to
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