Brain trust meeting-Shorthorn

Is there......or will there be tenderness marker discovered in 10 years.......how advantagous would the condition be dollar wise? Or in other words.....would it ever be possible to pull blood on a fat steer and then you could sort him quality wise by the marker test. Could you ever sell a pen load of cattle or few head with a docility score dna mark?

aj said:

Is there......or will there be tenderness marker discovered in 10 years.......how advantagous would the condition be dollar wise? Or in other words.....would it ever be possible to pull blood on a fat steer and then you could sort him quality wise by the marker test. Could you ever sell a pen load of cattle or few head with a docility score dna mark?

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there are several tenderness tests out there already, most of which are single SNP based. 


here's one.
http://www.geneticvisions.net


note they test for two SNP's.  whether or not they of any use is anyone's guess. they are probably equivalent of two of the original genestar tests from bovigen.


regarding dollar wise, there isn't a product stream that takes advantage of it yet with regards to the consumer paying for it.

Back in the GeneStar days, a very few Shorthorn breeders had done the testing, and made that info available... 
Whether or not those markers were valid for Shorthorns, I don't know - I don't see why they wouldn't be, but a regular poster here alluded to the fact that they were not... but I don't understand WHY NOT...
Regardless, I factored that GeneStar data in when making SH sire selection... we have extensively used one SH sire that had (IIRC) 4 of 6 Tenderness markers and 3 of 6 Quality-grade markers, and a couple more from the same breeder that had (IIRC) 3 of 6 Tenderness and 4 of 6 QG gene markers.

Crossing over cows sired by Angus sires with known Tenderness scores and Simmental sires with well-above average Shear epds, I'm hopeful that the carcasses my calves are producing, in addition to having good REA and marbling, will also have better-than-average tenderness.

Could the Shorthorn board of directors or ceo approach a upcoming guru.........help sponsor a phd thesis or whatever on docility markers. He could become the "Docility specialist" in his field. He could start collecting data on even watching steers being processed through chutes......and pulling blood on obvious crazies and obvious docile cattle. He would eventually have a piece of the pie in any genetic test procedure. Then there is no doubt in my mind that the Shorthorns can kick the Angus breeds arse in disposition. You proove it up.....test verify....demonstrate....make it a fact.....and market the Shorthorns through the docility angle.  If rancher Joes daughter has a Angus break her arm and he wants to do something about docility....ness he will know how to fix a problem.

The breed needs to own the disposition deal.....how how the Herfords might line on the thing I don't know. But if our breed had the data we could own the deal IF we were out front on the deal.

I think any time a breed has a dual purpose background, docility has been selected for.
Why dairy bulls can be aggressive might be because of selection for really female type cows and really male type bulls.
If we had more experience with dual purpose breeds we might not think Shorthorns were extra docile. There is a cultural history that  transmits thru time in behavior. Why should an Angus be trusting?

Management also plays a huge role in docility.  It might be very difficult to accurately measure docility.  Very subjective.

Quick question, why do people use the animals behavior coming through the chute as a sign of docility? We have a cow nicknamed "crazy" that is the hardest animal to catch I've ever dealt with. She won't go within 20 yards of the catch pen if she sees my dad around, and I have to trick her into going into the barn for feed (1 mistake and it's better off giving up on her for the day because it will take about an hour to get her into the catch pen), but once you get her into the chute she is an absolute doll. I can hand milk her, and she has never once flinched at a shot or jumped when being bred AI or pg checked.

I have worked with Red Angus for 7 years now and Shorthorns 30 sum. I would argue that Red Angus cattle are up at least 1 notch and sometimes 2 notches. the Detour son I have is up 3 notches. I have heard that ext offspring were up 3 notches on being crazy. As far as running cattle through the chute is concerned.......feedlots do it......they implant......re-implant. My point was that feedlots might not mind if a person is standing there watching........and if a nutcake comes through....the person could draw blood or whatever. If a real docile one came through same thing......then you need to get some averages......but you need samples and samples of a couple breed combinations I would think.