BRANDON – Cattle grazing the pastures at Agriculture Canada research stations here and in Lethbridge, Alta. are a cattle producer’s rainbow of colors.
But beneath their skin they’re all akin.
And they’re providing researchers with an opportunity to study the role genetics and environmental conditions play in productivity of a beef herd.
Over the past 25 years, researchers involved with the Foreign Cattle Breed Evaluation Project have developed a genetically uniform herd from a composite of foreign and British cattle breeds.
Split between the two stations, there are about 800 cows, calves and bulls which are one-quarter Charolais, one-quarter Simmental, one-sixteenth Limousin, and seven-sixteenths British.
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The project was first established to determine how the exotic breeds being introduced to the Prairies performed under different environmental conditions.
But the program’s new director is now considering how to expand that mandate as the program enters its second phase.
Bob Kemp, who started in January, said the cattle in the program are well-placed to provide some clues on how specific genetic traits affect a herd’s overall profitability.
The effect of genetics
“We know that cattle in different environments perform differently,” he said. “I’m interested in taking it one step back to see how that is affected by the genetics.”
Scientists have long wondered whether selecting for specific traits can improve the overall reproductive performance of a herd.
It’s a quest that’s full of dead ends. For example, a recent study at the University of Manitoba found a bull’s pelvic size bears little relevance to how much difficulty his female offspring will have in calving.
Scientists are also curious to determine which traits are preferable under different environmental conditions.
Cattle moved to different environments
It’s an area particularly relevant in Canada’s increasingly mobile cattle industry. Animals are frequently moved thousands of miles and expected to perform in vastly different environments during their lifetimes.
But Kemp said little is known about genetics and the related area of reproductive physiology. “We don’t have a good understanding of the genetics associated with reproduction,” he said.
While he concedes much of the research being conducted offers little in the way of direct application on a cattle producer’s farm, it is still necessary. “Our role is to look at some of the things producers can’t,” he said.
“The thing people have to understand is the breakthroughs in research come from the basic level. The pay-off is down the road.”
For example a reproductive physiologist recently assigned to the program is studying how the cow’s uterus and ovaries interact during the reproductive cycle.
While many farmers care little about the function of certain hormones in cattle reproduction, Kemp said it could lead to ways of determining a heifer’s fertility long before she enters a breeding program.
In theory, the level of hormones in a blood sample taken from a heifer, or even her sire, could some day be an indicator of how well she will perform in a breeding program, he said.
