General Session I
Role of Genetic Evaluation Technology in Enhancing Global Competitiveness
BOZEMAN, Mont. (June 2, 2011) — The 2011 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Research Symposium and Annual Meeting kicked off Thursday morning with General Session I: The Role of Genetic Evaluation Technology in Enhancing Global Competitiveness. Jeff Jacobsen, Dean of Agriculture at Montana State University, chaired the session, which included presentations from three industry professionals.
Robert Williams, director of breed improvement and foreign marketing for the American-International Charolais Association (AICA), addressed his concerns with a growing world population, and the effect that it will have on an already shrinking beef cattle population.
The United Nations (UN) projects that the world’s population will reach 9 billion people by the year 2050. In turn, food production is expected to double in the same amount of time.
In order to meet the increasing demand for food, and beef in particular, the cattle industry needs to continue our focus on performance and genetics, which have been significant to the increase of beef production in the past, Williams explained. Many of our successes in these areas can be traced to the work done within BIF.
However, despite these past successes, our beef breed associations are facing challenges in the future. Both the U.S. beef cow inventory and U.S. breed registries reached their peaks in the 1970s.
Today, the industry needs approximately 400,000 fewer bulls than it did in 1975. The decrease in commercial beef cow numbers has lead to a loss of approximately 430,000 registrations for beef breed associations, which correlates to a loss of nearly $11,000,000 annually.
While past research and development within the industry has taken place on the campuses of the country’s most viable land-grant universities, budget cuts on these campuses have begun to restrict the amount of research that can be done. In turn, many beef breed associations, such as the American Angus Association and the American Simmental Association, are forming in-house genetic evaluation services.
Today, Williams said, the biggest question that faces the beef industry isn’t whether or not we should use genomic information; it’s how we should use it efficiently. The current system in place, which utilizes many separate “islands of data,” i.e., from breed to breed, is not resourceful. Each breed and industry organization researching these genetic improvements are searching for the same thing — why not share these resources?
Williams believes that the best solution to the question at hand is to create an information infrastructure that can support the formation of research, technology development and partnerships within the segregated breeds and organizations. With the use of the best technology and resources, we can spend less time focusing on our individual breeds and more time successfully enveloping the theme of BIF, which is to improve the beef industry as a whole.
To listen to this presentation and to view the PowerPoint and the proceedings paper that accompanied it, visit the Newsroom at www.BIFconference.com.
BIF’s 43rd Annual Research Symposium and Annual Meeting was hosted June 1-4 on campus at Montana State University, Bozeman, Mont.
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