Boran is 10th breed with genomic breeding values

The Boran beef cattle breed had recently become the 10th cattle breed registered with SA Stud Book with Genomic Breeding Values derived from information in an animal’s DNA.

According to Francois Smit, president of the Boran Cattle Breeders’ Society of South Africa, the society actively participated in the Beef Genomic Programme (BGP). He said just under 500 suitable genetically influential Boran cattle were genotyped to form the basis for a future genomic reference population.

Dr Japie van der Westhuizen, SA Stud Book general manager, told Farmer’s

Weekly the fact that the society financed the BGP themselves was testament to the country’s Boran breeders’ commitment to both stud breeders and commercial beef cattle producers by selecting the best-performing animals for the market. The benefit of BGP was that it enabled breeders to make selection decisions based on real data. This minimised the selection risks markedly.

The BGP kicked off with the genotyping of diverse influential breeding animals with known genetic merit. This meant that relatively unrelated herd bulls and cows with large numbers of measured and recorded offspring were included in the first step. The relationship between the genetic code and the animals’ value as breeding animals was therefore determined and mutually used to make accurate predictions.

“SA Stud Book, as a forerunner in the local application of modern technology in predicting the genetic merits of farm animals, has already been able to use genomic information for this purpose by 2018 when the first genomic breeding values were released,” Van der Westhuizen said.

Stud Book and its breeders’ societies’ investment in genomics put South African breeders on par with the best in the world. Increased accuracy was one of the main advantages of GEBVs.

“SA Stud Book’s services also unlocked information on markers of single genes for various genetic disorders and serious genetic diseases, polled genes, double muscling, and meat tenderness, among others. Genomic information is also employed to accurately determine actual relationships and genetic distances between individual animals, breeding lines within a breed, and between breeds,” Van der Westhuizen added. –