Twinner Cattle Newsletter -- Spring 2000
The North American Twinning Cattle Herdbook is under development. Thanks to those who
returned the postcards sent with the previous mailing. If you indicated an interest in
participating in the registry, you can expect to hear from us shortly as we get started collecting
data.
We will maintain records and calculate EPDs annually at the University of Wisconsin. To cover
costs associated with this work a one-time fee, initially set at $5 per head, will be charged per
cow. Fees are structured this way (one-time per cow vs. annual per cow) to encourage recording
of information from the whole herd. To have meaningful EPDs it will be important that data be
collected and reported for all animals in the herd rather than selective reporting of data.
Participants will be required to report birthdate, sex, sire, dam, and birth type (single, twin, etc.)
for animals recorded. In addition, phenotypic data such as birth, weaning and yearling weights,
etc. can be voluntarily reported. We will submit a proposal to USDA-MARC to incorporate their
data in the database as well for purposes of improving the EPD calculations. USDA-MARC's
data will initially include more records than the data from private herds and will be important
for that reason. It is also particularly relevant given that most of the twinner animals in private
herds will either have been produced in or be descendants of stock from the USDA-MARC
twinner herd.
February's twinner cattle meeting in Hastings, NE was attended by 16 individuals, which
represented roughly the same number of cattle producers as were present last year. Mark
Thallman provided information on current twinning breeding value estimates for bulls
previously purchased from USDA-MARC. If you haven't received a copy of this and would like
to, Mark can be contacted by mail at: US Meat Animal Research Center, P.O. Box 166, Clay
Center, NE 68933. Mark updated those present on USDA-MARC's use of genetic markers (DNA
tests) for animal selection in the twinning herd. An update was also presented on the gene
mapping efforts at the University of Wisconsin which are a collaborative effort with USDAMARC. The work at Wisconsin has now confirmed the existence of a gene for ovulation rate on
cattle chromosome 19. As mentioned last year, our previous work identified a region of
chromosome 19 as being an important contributor to high ovulation rate, and this research was
conducted using the USDA-MARC family sired by the Swedish Friesian bull 839802. The followup study used the family sired by his paternal half-brother, 839803, and results from this study
again suggest the importance of the same region of chromosome 19.
DNA tests for chromosome 19 and for other regions will be available in the near future. We are
currently developing additional genetic markers in the regions of interest and will keep you
posted on that. Our initial effort is to provide a DNA test that very specifically identifies the
form of chromosome 19 that is associated with high ovulation rate. If this is sufficiently specific,
one could perform the test using only DNA from the individual of interest. With a less specific
test, DNA testing of related animals might be required in order to deduce inheritance of the
region of interest.
Marketplace:
USDA-MARC's annual sale of twinning breeding stock this past February averaged $818 for 23
bred cows and $925 for five bulls.
Two bull calves for sale. They are twins from a cow that has had twins twice previously. Breed
composition is 3/4 Brown Swiss (dairy), 1/4 Charolais. The calves weigh approximately 500 lbs
(January 17, 2000)
(continued on back)
Semen from twinner bulls:
USDA ID#888521, 48.2 twinning rate EBV (USDA), Owner: Daren Cyphers. Contact Hoffman
A.I. Breeders, 801 - 753 - 7883 or ABS Global Inc, 1 - 800 - ABS - STUD
USDA ID#949673, 47.2 twinning rate EBV (USDA). Owner: Daren Cyphers. Contact Hoffman
A.I. Breeders, 801 - 753 - 7883.
USDA ID #918521, 51.4 twinning rate EBV (USDA), contact Sean Smith, 1211 240 th Avenue,
Thurman, IA 51654, 712-628-3005.
USDA ID#969381, 64.0 twinning rate EBV (USDA), contact Brian Kirkpatrick, 4917 Tocora Lane,
Madison, WI 53711.
That's all I have for now. As I mentioned last time, if you have something for sale that you'd like
to bring to the attention of the twinning mailing list (cattle, embryos, semen) just drop me a line
and I'll include it in the next communication. I'd particularly encourage those who have semen
available from twinner sires to share that information.
Brian Kirkpatrick
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1675 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI 53706
608-263-4323
608-262-5157 (fax)
kirkpat@calshp.cals.wisc.edu