Variance component estimates for growth traits in beef cattle using selected variants from imputed low-pass sequence data.

A beef cattle population (n = 2,343) was used to assess the impact of variants identified from the imputed low-pass sequence (LPS) on the estimation of variance components and genetic parameters of birth weight (BWT) and post-weaning gain (PWG). Variants were selected based on functional impact and were partitioned into four groups (low, modifier, moderate, high) based on predicted functional impact and re-partitioned based on the consequence of mutation, such as missense and untranslated region variants, into six groups (G1-G6). Each subset was used to construct a genomic relationship matrix (GRM) for univariate animal models.

Genetic parameter estimates for bull prolificacy and its relationship with scrotal circumference in a commercial beef cattle population.

The commercial beef cattle industry relies heavily on the use of natural service sires. When artificial insemination is deemed difficult to implement, multisire breeding pastures are used to increase reproductive rates in large breeding herds or to safe-guard against bull injury during the breeding season. Although each bull might be given an equal opportunity to produce offspring, evidence suggest that there is substantial variation in the number of calves sired by each bull in a breeding pasture.