As milk prices continue to waver, dairy producers across the country are looking down different avenues for profit. One that seems to be growing in popularity is the practice of breeding the bottom end of a herd with beef semen and selling the crossbred calves at a higher market value.

When genomic testing was first introduced to the dairy industry in 2009, there was considerable debate and pushback about the value and reliability of the information. At first, the industry was focused on determining if we could choose bulls without progeny testing – a sea change for the A.I. industry.

Reproduction is a critical aspect of any species’s life cycle and plays a major role in food animal production. Since the implementation of artificial insemination (A.I.) in the beef cattle industry, researchers have strived to improve the efficiency and utilization of this reproductive practice.

What is the difference between ‘genetics,’ ‘genomics’ and ‘genome’? Genetics is a branch of biology focused on heredity and variation of organisms. In simpler terms, genetics focuses on the characteristics or traits that are passed from parents to children, from one generation to another.

A dairy cow’s immune system, along with reproduction, is an important fitness trait. It’s a trait that’s of major consideration for producers because the ability to find and identify cows with a superior immune response can reduce disease incidence and improve milk quality and farm profitability.

Whether you concentrate on developing elite genetics or producing milk for the market, genomic data can be a valuable tool in achieving your goals. In this article, we will examine testing options and how both breeding herds and commercial herds might use those options differently.

Producers and industry personnel gathered May 14 in Tulare, California, and May 15 in Bakersfield, California, to discuss important factors contributing to genomic testing.