DNA Testing

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showsteerdlux

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 30, 2007
Messages
1,765
Location
Western NC
I have a heifer calf born on Dec. 21 and we dont know if she is out of AI or the bull. To make a long story short her mom lost the first calf so we waited forty days stuck a cidr in and ai'd her on time to Ali. We thought maybe she didnt catch because the bull quote bred her 6 or 7  days later. Needless to say when she was born she didnt look even close to anything the bull has ever had and she would have been 5 days early on pasture date but 1 day late on AI date. The calf has the look of an Ali because we showed her mom but she is not the clubby cow and the pasture bull is a typical angus with not alot of bone or thickness and not very wide based.
How would I go about getting the calf dna tested so that we know when it comes time to sell her?
 

DL

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Joined
Jan 29, 2007
Messages
3,622
If you think the calf is an Ali you can work thru the Maine Association - basically submit a sample from the calf (I think they are doing tail hair now, a sample from the herd bull and they will have Ali on file) - they will be able to match markers and either tell you that Ali is consistent with the sire of your calf or not the sire of your calf. Talk to Rhonda at the AMAA. If not a Maine sire there are commercial labs that do parental verification - betcha knabe knows them all. I don't know what they require sample wise :)
 

Jill

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Jan 20, 2007
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3,551
Location
Gardner, KS
If you get the kit from the AMAA it will be 35, I don't know the cost if you have to go outside of them.
 

knabe

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Joined
Feb 7, 2007
Messages
13,639
Location
Hollister, CA
i am aware of several companies that do this.  to make it simple, i would go with the amaa, as they will have ALI on file.  find out where the other bull in question is on file.  personally, i would rather do the test just once, and if you do the bull that is not ali, and  it's not him, you still haven't tested whether the calf is ali, though there probably isn't a chance that the wrong straw was used.  as i've mentioned repeatedly, sample mixup's happen.

no results can say they are definitively related, only that the markers are consistent with being related.

as i've been told by xxcc, the canadian maine association takes a blood sample from every registered calf and puts it on file.  supposedly it takes a minimum of 7 individuals to type a bull. haven't been able to verify this through the association (canadian, as the website isn't that friendly).
 
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