Genomic testing

[Princess Pooper]

For those of you genomic testing:

Which lab or front - end provider are you using and how much is it costing you per animal?
Are you doing it as part of a 'breeding package'?
We already use a breeding adviser (without the advantage of genomics) and we get discounted semen through a buying group so not sure of any benefits of the latter.
TIA

 

[How Dairy]

If I am honest, I am never convinced about ROI of it. It'd be £30 minimum per animal. You'd need pretty good genetic gains to justify it. I need to do the sums. You can just use this report and look at genomic bulls https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/dairy-herd-genetic-reports. It doesn't limit you to bulls from a specific company either.

Also, with genetic gain - is this worth more than keeping a decent 5th lactation animal that is nice and efficient?

 

[kp_n_plghng]

NMR or HUK are an option to avoid getting locked into an ai company, though not all AI companies will ask for 100% contract anyway.
Prices are usually £20-26 but NMR are running introductory deals below that.
Problem at the moment is different labs are using different technologies so moving that genomic print could be a challenge/impossible should you change supplier.

 

[cattow]

I thought AHDB did the interpretation so it doesn’t matter who did it

 

[More to life]

I suffer a huge amount of fomo for not doing it as it gets cheaper it becomes more and more tempting. Without selling heifers I just can't see any return i've already got a high index herd.

 

[Princess Pooper]

We are not milking for much longer, so will be selling these animals being born now and probably not milking them ourselves.

 

[More to life]

We are not milking for much longer, so will be selling these animals being born now and probably not milking them ourselves.

Can't be much to
gain then.

 

[kp_n_plghng]

I thought AHDB did the interpretation so it doesn’t matter who did it

In order to use the data for mating programmes or analysis such as genocells, or to merge data. You will need the actual genomic profile which contains the snp data
This file is not compatible across all companies.

 

[How Dairy]

In order to use the data for mating programmes or analysis such as genocells, or to merge data. You will need the actual genomic profile which contains the snp data
This file is not compatible across all companies.

Ah, but the influence of having done the genomics is logged against the animal for her AHDB herd genetic report though? I will check this with Marco

edit: Message back from Marco Winters... Its true that moving the actual genotype for GenoCells (or other proprietary indexes) is a bit more problematic at the moment. Normally for mating programs however you just need the UK GPTAs which can be released with the right consent forms.

 

[Jdunn55]

I am using cogent to test all of my pedigree calves

I love it for making mating decisions

When I first started I only did my best ones not all of them now when it comes to serving them it's far easier to match bulls up to the ones who have been tested than those who haven't

For instance I can look and see what her fertility score is and then go right she's got plenty of fertility and can carry a slightly negative bull who will increase her milk and type score and really drive genetic gain

Or I can see she's negative 1 for fertility so she can't carry him best use something down the middle who isn't quite as high for such and such but will improve the fertility and then her calf will have a big pli gain all being well

Really does help slot pieces of the unknown jigsaw in place at least for me

 

[Princess Pooper]

So, what I was told today: NMR £22 for the numbers we are looking at (low) for GeneEze, results back in less than 2 weeks, although it may be 2 months before it is reported on Herd Companion. The raw data is sent to AHDB and its genetics partner to be translated into something understandable (this is the bit that takes the extra time). Their more expensive one £26 which is more comprehensive has to go to America and takes longer, but doesn't give results that fit into the £PLI/£ACI/£SCI system.

We can share NMR data with eg Cogent, Genus etc for mating decisions. Genus share with NMR so we could load their data into Herd Companion (which we do use) but Cogent do not, which is a pain. Cogent I am told from another source also £22. She has Channel Island breeds which are good enough for semen sales but the route she uses via her breed society (who send them to Cogent but do not charge her anything as they received a bequest to fund genetic improvement) takes several months, which is very frustrating for her as she may keep a bull calf in the hope that he is good, to then find out that in fact he has inherited some crap genetics and by keeping him she has lost money as he won't be any good for breeding. Cheaper for her to just pay £22 and get results back quickly!