Maternal traits have been the core consideration for cow-calf producers when making breeding decisions and for good reason. The cow is the engine of productivity at the producer level.

Progressive Cattle Editor Tyrell Marchant visits with Ken Odde from Kansas State University about his work on the newly formed Genetic Merit Pricing Task Force and how he thinks genetic data will impact how cattle are bought, sold and raised in the future. Then, Tyrell sits down with Justin Derner from USDA-ARS at the Range Beef Cow Symposium to discuss what producers can do to make sure their pasture is doing everything it can for their cattle, and vice versa.

Known as the “six essentials,” selection for these traits can improve profitability of any herd, of any breed, in any location: disposition, fertility, weight, conformation, hardiness and milk production.

The Functional Longevity (FL) research EPD was released by the American Angus Association for breeders on Oct. 25. The trait’s purpose is to help further characterize relevant maternal traits and increase the long-term success of breeders and profitability of cow-calf herds.

“Male sexed semen is an opportunity to capture value,” said Kansas State University's Ken Odde, who also helps manage a family cow-calf ranch in South Dakota. “The opportunity’s greater when the price spread between steers and heifers is significant.”

To remain competitive in today’s beef industry, commercial producers must identify and implement technologies that have favorable impacts on their beef cattle enterprises, and crossbreeding is one such technology.

The usual suspects (expected progeny differences [EPDs], genomic testing, heterosis) were covered, as were some issues (beef-on-dairy, methane emissions, cardiac health) that may have been a bit more of a surprise to the uninitiated at an event ostensibly dedicated to beef cattle genetics.