Better beef? Neogen Corporation develops industry’s first heterosis test for crossbred cattle

08 Jan 2020 --- In a first for the beef industry, US-based food safety company Neogen Corporation has released Igenity + Envigor – a genetic test that measures heterosis in crossbred cattle. In cattle breeding, heterosis is the term given to the tendency of a crossbred calf to show traits superior to those of its parents. This development comes as agri-tech solutions are bending the curve of productivity in the livestock sector, with significant impacts for food businesses.

“Envigor is based on characterizing genomic data of relevant US breeds, with breed composition placed into a retained heterosis formula,” says Dr. Jamie Courter, Beef Product Manager at Neogen. “Good crossbreeding programs have proven that heterosis leads to increased fertility, lower cull rates, more pounds weaned per cow exposed and greater feed efficiency. Rather than replace an effective crossbreeding program on its own, Envigor will help ranch owners make more informed decisions.”

Envigor adds several new features to Neogen's existing Igenity Beef platform. In addition to the 16 traits reported with Igenity Beef, Envigor provides an estimate of heterosis in crossbred cattle on a scale from one to ten. A higher score indicates increased heterosis.

“Envigor is an important release for us as it represents many years of research and planning to create a tool that helps commercial producers get the most out of their crossbreeding programs,” adds Dr. Stewart Bauck, Vice President of Agrigenomics at Neogen. “Igenity + Envigor will provide producers with an avenue to select better replacements and make genetic progress in traits of relevance to their operations.”

Analysis by Neogen’s research and development team has found that a one score increase in Envigor leads to a 4 percent increase in the probability of a heifer getting pregnant alongside a 4 percent increase in her likelihood to stay in the herd for six years. Both are critical traits regarding the bottom-line impacting costs of raising replacement heifers.

“Envigor represents Neogen's commitment to partner with commercial cattlemen to deliver a total genomic solution for their herd,” continues Bauck. “We are solely focused on providing the best tools that continue to drive genetic progress, and the commercial producer, forward.”

Tech-boosted cattle rearing
Last November, Ph.D. student Xiangyu Song at Wageningen University and Research (WUR), the Netherlands, developed an automated 3D vision system for monitoring dairy cows. This non-invasive, animal-friendly 3D technology can help farmers manage their cows’ daily health and their feeding to reach a high-quality production. WUR tips the technology as having “great potential to be widely used on commercial farms.”

Dairy giant Arla Foods currently uses similar 3D imagery systems to identify changes in physical wellbeing, mobility and weight in cows. The use of visual monitoring, data recording and artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in managing cow welfare is said to remove human subjectivity from health screening assessments.

In other dairy tech developments, Arla has utilized an AI tool to predict the milk production of 1.5 million cows, elevating value chain sustainability. This move is expected to use 200 million kilograms of milk more efficiently each year.

By Benjamin Ferrer