LRF/BREEDPLAN eNEWS - LRF/BREEDPLAN eNUUS Vol 1/No3 – October 2011

Unless noted otherwise all contributions by Peter Massmann. Editor: Dr. Michael Bradfield.

Important: Copyright policy

The LRF has to protect its copyrighted work otherwise it becomes public domain and can be republished by anyone for their profit and without attribution to us. Reproduction of the content or parts thereof, directly or indirectly in any medium, is only permissible with the following caption: “Source - Livestock Registering Federation eNEWS Vol. 1 No. 3. Author P Massmann”

Indien nie anders vermeld alle bydraes deur Peter Massmann. Redakteur: Dr. Michael Bradfield Belangrik: Outeursreg beleid Die LRF moet sy kopiereg beskerm anders word dit publieke domein en kan deur enigiemand her-gepubliseer word vir hulle wins en sonder erkenning aan ons. Reproduksie van die inhoud of dele hiervan, direk of indirek in enige medium, is slegs toelaatbaar met die volgende aanhaling: “Bron - Lewendehawe Registrerende Federasie eNUUS Vol. 1 Nr. 3. Outeur P Massmann” _________________________________________________________________________________________________

eNUUS INHOUD / eNEWS CONTENT

1. Boodskap van die LRF President Mnr. Wessel Hattingh

Die pad vorentoe vir die LRF in die lewendehawe bedryf is baie belowend met verskeie uitdagings wat ons sal moet oorweeg. Die gevestigde stelsel van die LRF lede as onafhanklike registrerende owerhede, gerugsteun deur die beste sagteware sisteem “Breedplan” plaas ons lede op die voorgrond in die mededingende globale arena. ’n Belangrike komponent van hierdie alomvattende diens pakket is die puik internet platform waardeur inligting van ons diere vryelik aan enige internet gebruiker beskikbaar is. In hierdie en vorige eNUUS uitgawes is hieroor berig. Uitdagings vir 2012 kan ‘n unieke geleentheid bied dat ons lede moontlik vir die eerste keer in die geskiedenis bymekaar kom in die vorm van ‘n dinkskrum om sake van gemeenskaplike belange te formuleer en in plek te stel wat koste besparings, strukturele veranderings, administratiewe sake en opleiding op alle vlakke insluit. Die afgelope twaalf maande het die stygende pryse van lewendehawe , sowel as graan vir produsente groot voordeel ingehou. Dit bring tot gevolg beter pryse in die stoetvee bedryf. Lees gerus die artikel oor bulpryse en bepreek dit met jou kommersiële bulkopers. Dit is verblydend om te sien dat dit goed gaan met die vleisbees-stoetbedryf. Volgens ’n interessante ontleding in hierdie uitgawe is daar nou ¼ miljoen vroulike stoetdiere oor 2 jaar. Dit is oor die 30% meer as 5 jaar gelede. Die belangrikheid van reproduksie is alombekend. In hierdie uitgawe is daar belangrike artikels oor die meting van reproduksie teelwaardes. Ons beveel aan dat elke teler in prestasie toetsing dit lees en toetsing daarvan sterk oorweeg. Beste Groete Wessel Hattingh wwh@francolincreek.co.za

2. Message from the Editor

The Stud Industry continues to go through tumultuous times in South Africa. However, BREEDPLAN producers have largely been protected from these events and all Chairman of Societies using BREEDPLAN must by now realise the value of their members having full ownership of their data, running their own offices and being able to dictate the terms of their existence. The South African Holstein Society, whom has used the BREEDPLAN registry system for the last eight years, launched the Dairy Express herd recording system at its AGM in Bloemfontein in September. This is a major decision and will allow the SA Holstein Society to expand its range of services to its members. It will also give it access to commercial Holstein producers that have until now been the preserve of other service providers. The South African Warm Blood Association (SAWHS), with over 400 members has also decided to move from SA Studbook to BREEDPLAN and open their own secretariat using the International Livestock Registry system. This unanimous decision was recently made at their AGM in September. The secretariat will be run in Kyalami, the heart of the equestrian centre in South Africa. A hearty welcome to all the SAWHS Societies. BREEDPLAN also continues to attract members in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. Namibia has seen good growth with an additional 20-30 members joining over the last quarter. Zimbabwe is now fully on BREEDPLAN, has a good staff contingent and a very good manager in Dr Mario Beffa. Leonard Morakaladi has also been appointed the new BREEDPLAN manager in Botswana. He is a stud producer and businessman in Gaberone. The increased uptake of our products (ILR registry system, BREEDPLAN Recording, HerdMASTER and Dairy Express) is no doubt transforming the decision making within the South Africa’s livestock industries. All of these products are available from our offices in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana (click here for brochure - http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/05BPSouthAfricanBrochure.pdf). Finally, by the time this Newsletter is being read we should be close to the finals of the rugby world cup. Hopefully South Africa will be in the mix to win. What is undisputable however is the value we get from our country competing in the world stage. This is what BREEDPLAN has successfully done for its users over the last four decades. Viva the boks! Regards Michael admin@agribsa.co.za

3. BLUP Blapse Soos vantevore hier vermeld, het ek in my 15 jaar se betrokkenheid by lokale 'BLUP' prestasie toetsing ’n aantal aantekening probleme geïdentifiseer wat kommer wek. Hierdie foutiewe aantekening gewoontes gaan ek hier meermale aanspreek omdat dit nie genoeg 'ingevryf' kan word nie.

Die geloofwaardigheid van teelwaardes berus by die teler Telers voorsien die stamboom- en prestasie inligting vir die Blup verwerking. Indien hierdie inligting onakkuraat is sal die EBVs foutief en ongeloofwaardig wees. Die gewigte/mate en teel besonderhede moet korrek wees want beide word vir die berekening van teelwaardes gebruik. Voltooi geboorte-kennisgewing korrek en doen DNA ouerskap bepalings indien jy oor ’n ouer twyfel. Genootskappe doen van tyd tot tyd ouerskap kontrole toetse op onwillekeurig- verkose telers maar ek voel dat dit na baie meer telers per jaar uitgebrei moet word. Benader dit eerder positief ("ek is skoon getoets") as negatief ("die ..... kantoor, mistrou hulle my geboortes) Moenie Blup blameer vir jou foute nie Groepeer slegs eners behandelde diere saam. Diere wat aan verskillende behandeling of bestuur onderwerp was wat ‘n invloed op die dier of kalf se gewig mag hê, moet met ‘n eie-keuse bestuurskode letter voorsien word sodat hulle nie in die ontleding direk met mekaar vergelyk word nie. Veral uitsoek-diere (skoue en veilings) skep probleme en kry dan foutiewe teelwaardes. Belangrike inligting en wenke oor groepering van u diere is hier beskikbaar: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article08.htm Abnormaal swaar of ligte diere in ’n weeggroep word deur Breedplan as 'Uitskieters' geklassifiseer en moet deur die genootskap se kantoor aan die teler voorsien word vir regstelling. Ek beveel sterk aan dat telers hierdie LRF artikel lees: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article39.htm

Diskriminasie lei tot konsternasie -- Weeg/punt alle diere insluitende die uitskot diere of weeg glad nie. Deur slegs die beter (swaarder) diere te weeg maak jy hulle ‘middelmatig’ i.p.v. 'goed' omdat hulle ligter maats nie geweeg is nie. Daar bestaan ’n mooi voorbeeld van hoe telers wat selektief weeg hulself verneuk en die negatiewe kettingreaksie wat dit tot gevolg het – lees hier: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/March/Articles/Article05.htm Weeg meer diere minder gereeld Dit vergemaklik mos bestuur. Moet asseblief nie 'bietjies-bietjies' diere weeg nie. BLUP 'werk lekker' as ’n groot groep diere van enerse behandeling saam geweeg word. Weeg dus soveel as moontlik diere op dieselfde dag voordat groepe verdeel word; bv. speen, kastreer, regmaak vir veiling/skou en veral uitskot. Daar is telers wat net 2-3 keer per jaar weeg. Al die gewigte/metings met afsny ouderdomme word hier opgesom: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/March/Articles/Article16A.pdf Kalf seisoene het net voordele Vir die teler se bestuurstelsel, voervloei, arbeitsbenutting, lekaanvulling, inenting-program, geboorte en gewig indiening, vir die kantoor en veral vir BLUP. Vermy kluisenaars-teling. Genetiese koppelings (verwantskap) met ander kuddes is noodsaaklik om diere van verskillende kuddes met mekaar te vergelyk. Lees hier oor die nadele van ongekoppelde kuddes en hoe om koppeling te handhaaf: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article06.htm Gee meer 'woema' aan jou stoetbulle se teelwaardes Vir genetiese koppeling tussen jare moet ten minste een kalf van verlede jaar se vaders ook in die weeggroep verteenwoordig wees. Probeer dus om nie alle bulle in een jaar te vervang nie. Sorg ook dat daar ten minste twee vaders in ’n weeggroep verteenwoordig is. Dit kom neer op groot weeggroepe. Hierdie basiese beginsels is uiters belangrik vir teelwaardes.

4. SA Holstein makes important announcement at AGM In a previous eNEWS we announced that SA Holstein is the first society in SA which introduced the International Livestock Register ILR2 system. Now Mr Stephen Mains-Sheard, the re-elected President of SA Holstein, announced another first.

"We at Council feel very strongly that the Society has to become more than just a registering authority focusing on Registrations, Classifications and Shows. We must look at changing our business structure and evolve to become an overall service provider in cattle breeding and management information. Bearing this in mind, we are implementing certain criteria as a start to achieving our long term goals.

1. As promised, we are still in the process of training our Technical Staff to become competent Technical Advisors. One of the set backs in achieving this objective was the delay in receiving our performance data from the ARC. All this data has now been captured onto our ILR2 system, and we can now use this information to assimilate accurate reports.

2. As mentioned in last years report, we were very concerned about the future of the current milk recording system.

The current dispute between SA Studbook and the Animal Research Centre does not bode well for the dairy industry. Council has decided to implement Dairy Express as an alternative. We will start implementing this system in the Western Cape, and once we are satisfied that it is running smoothly, we will then introduce Dairy Express to the other Provinces.

3. All our genetic evaluations will be done in Australia by Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS), who

have a dedicated team of scientists, who work full time on Genetic Evaluations. All our future BVI figures and breeding values will be analysed by the Geneticists from ADHIS in conjunction with research groups in South Africa. Analyses will be done twice a year, in April and November."

End of quote. Note: Also read "SA Holstein manager visits Australia" in this eNEWS Visit http://www.adhis.com.au/ for info on the Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme.

5. Die werklike geldwaarde van ’n kommersiële bul VEEPLAAS* het my versoek om ’n artikel te skryf oor die prys van ’n bul vir kommersiële teling m.a.w. hoe bepaal jy die waarde van jou bul-belegging. Ek het afgewyk van die gewone maatstawwe 'ses slagkoeie se prys' of 'Speenkalfprys X 230 kg X faktor 8)'. * = Skryf gerus in op "Die tydskrif vir die veeboer" by Tel: 087 808 9776

Jy kan nie die geldwaarde van ’n bul beredeneer sonder om op hoogte te wees van die bul se belangrikheid, sy invloed op vrugbaarheid en sy genetiese waarde nie. Heelwat kommersiële boere koop dikwels net 'n manlike bees, maak nie saak wat nie. Solank hy net sy koeie op die goedkoopste moontlike manier in kalf kan kry is hy tevrede. Ongelukkig besef hy nie die langtermyn skade wat so 'n bul deur middel van sy kalwers, maar veral aanteel-dogters, kan veroorsaak nie. Die grootste fout wat koei/kalf-produsente kán maak is om nie in ‘n goeie bul te belê nie! Kom ons besin eerstens oor die invloed van ‘n bul op jou kudde. In kort, wat is sy genetiese waarde vir jou?

1. Die paar bulle wat die boer in die laaste drie generasies in sy kudde gebruik het, se invloed op sy huidige kommersiële koeikudde is net onder die 90%. Dit illustreer die geweldige positiewe invloed wat die deurlopende gebruik van goeie bulle op die boer se kudde kan hê. Die teenoorgestelde geld natuurlik net soveel, naamlik die langtermyn skade wat swak bulle in ‘n kudde kan aanrig.

2. In die VSA het die Meat Animal Research Centre die invloed van bul-seleksie teenoor koeikudde-seleksie vir

kommersiële vleisbeesboerdery stelsels vergelyk. Hulle kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat die genetiese verbetering van ’n kudde as gevolg van uitsluitlike seleksie vir bulle met positiewe BLUP teelwaardes (in hierdie geval jaaroud teelwaardes) agt keer beter was as seleksie vir dieselfde eienskap slegs onder die vroulike diere sonder om aandag aan bulseleksie te gee.

3. Dit was tydens my verblyf in Duitsland dat ek die ontsaglike waarde van die bul vir veeverbetering eers werklik

besef het. In alle Sentraal-Europese lande het landbouleiers al langer as sewe dekades gelede besef dat die maklikste en vinnigste manier om ’n land se veestapel jaarliks te verbeter, die verpligte gebruik van goeie manlike diere is, hetsy bulle, bere, hingste of ramme. Kortom, geen boer mag ingevolge daardie lande se wette ongelisensieerde manlike diere gebruik nie. My ondervinding was dat almal gelukkig is met hierdie wetgewing omdat dit net goeie bulle en derhalwe voortdurende verbetering vir almal teweeg bring.

Beleggingswaarde Ek glo die kommersiële bulkoper behoort sy koeikudde se beleggingswaarde as uitgangspunt te gebruik om sy bul se prys te bepaal. Alhoewel die bul net 3-4% van die kudde uitmaak is hy, net soos die koeikudde, verantwoordelik vir 50% van die kalweroes. Konserwatief bereken is die waarde van ’n gemiddelde koeikudde wat by die bul kom ongeveer R40 000 per produktiewe jaar in die kudde vergeleke net R7 500 p.p.j.in kudde vir ’n bul wat teen R30 000 aangekoop is. Hoe kom ek daarby uit? Kom ons neem die waarde van die 25 teelkoeie op R250 000(1) en ons aanvaar dat hulle vir 6 jaar produktief in die kudde gaan bly. R250 000 gedeel deur 6 is R40625. Ek rond dit af na R40 000 ter wille van gemak, maar maak jou eie som op grond van jou eie omstandighede.

(1) Slagwaarde R7500 plus 30% = R9750 vir teelkoei X 25 per bul = R 243 750 sê R250 000

Die bul, daarteenoor, kos jou argumentshalwe R30 000, en hou 4 jaar in die kudde (hang onder andere af van Taurus of Indicus). Vandaar die R7 500 per produktiewe jaar. Dit rym nie dat die beleggingswaarde in die bul meer as vyf keer laer is as dié van die kommersiële boer se koeikudde nie, maar beide maak ’n 50% bydrae tot die kalweroes nie! In die lig hiervan is R30 000 vir ‘n bul spotgoedkoop. Kalfproduksiewaarde Die bul se invloed op die kudde se dragtigheidspersentasie word baie misgekyk en alle geldwaarde-somme rondom die bul berus ook op die getal lewendige kalwers wat die bul produseer: hoe meer kalwers, hoe goedkoper die bulkoste per kalf. Om baie kalwers te produseer moet die bul veral aan die volgende voldoen:

• Hy moet gemaklik loop en dek, m.a.w. hy moet struktureel korrek wees. Bulle wat deur die rasgenootskap-kenner goedgekeur is sal hieraan voldoen.

• ‘n Korrek-gevormde, groot skrotum sonder vetaanpaksel om die skrotum-nek is vir ’n aantal redes baie belangrik

en word meestal onderskat (sien volgende LRF eNUUS). Die meeste goedgekeurde bulle voldoen hieraan.

• Libido of 'die wil om te dek' is moeilik bepaalbaar. Kontak jou veearts.

• Vrugbare, 'sterk', gesonde saad – jaarlikse dekvermoë en saadtoetse deur jou veearts is eenvoudig ’n moet.

Bul A voldoen aan bovermelde kriteria en behaal 85%(2) dragtigheid vergeleke met 50% van Bul B wat byvoorbeeld lui is met regop hakke en ’n swak saad kwaliteit. Op grond van realistiese aannames (2) beloop die bulkoste per kalf gespeen oor die 'bulgebruik-periode' vir A en B onderskeidelik R370 en R670. Anders gestel, bul B se totale speenkalfproduksie sal ’n allemintige R139 000 minder wees. Dit toon dat daar nie by bulaankoop gespaar moet word nie en alle bulle jaarliks voor die teelseisoen deur die veearts ondersoek moet word.

(2) Aannames: Meerbulparing; 1:25 bul:koeie verhouding; bul aankoopprys R30 000, speen 220kg @R18; onderhoudskoste van bul bereken teen sy slagwaarde; 5% verlies van dragtig tot speen en bul gebruik vir vier jaar (volgens Dr. D Odendaal is daar na 6 – 7 jaar ouderdom, hang af van Taurus of Indicus, ’n afname in vrugbaarheid). Bronne: Dr. D Odendaal, P Milton en eie data.

Teelwaardes Geldwaarde berus ook op teelwaarde of hoe hy gaan teel en derhalwe moet ons op hoogte wees van teelwaardes. Die genetiese waarde of BLUP-teelwaardes is die beste hulpmiddel om deur die veilingsbul se vet te sien. Dit speel wêreldwyd al jare lank ’n belangrike rol in die aankoop van bulle omdat dit ’n slim wetenskaplik gebaseerde genetiese beraming is van hoe die bul gaan teel. Om deurentyd genetiese verbetering in ‘n koeikudde te bewerkstellig moet die nuwe bul beter wees as die vorige een. Die enigste manier om dit te bewerkstellig is om na die teelwaardes te kyk omdat die koper sodoende bulle van dieselfde ras, wat in verskillende jare en kuddes gebore is, met mekaar kan vergelyk. Die koper kan dus 'n berekende besluit neem wat nooit voorheen die geval was nie. Hierdie handige teelvoorspelling-waardes is alleenlik met behulp van (i) geordende prestasietoetsing en (ii) stambome berekenbaar en is derhalwe nie vir 'mongrels' en graad bulle beskikbaar nie. Wat is die geldwaarde-verskille tussen bulle op grond van hulle teelwaardes? Vergelyk byvoorbeeld twee bulle van dieselfde ras, 'Rand' en 'Sent': 'Rand' se speengewig-teelwaarde is in die beste 10% van sy ras vergeleke met bul 'Sent' se speengewig-teelwaarde wat in die onderste 10% van dieselfde ras lê. Albei voldoen aan bovermelde 'kalfproduksiewaarde' toetse en word op gelykwaardige kommersiële koeie gebruik om speenkalwers te produseer (alle aannames soos by (2)). Na vier jaar se gebruik behoort Rand sy eienaar R 10 100 meer in die sak te bring as Sent. Al kos Rand, weens sy getoetste genetiese meerderwaardigheid, byvoorbeeld R5 100 meer as Sent, sal Rand se kalwers nogtans R5 000 meer inbring. En dan het ek nog nie eens die meerderwaardigheid van Rand se vervangings-dogters in hierdie hipotetiese vergelyking in ag geneem nie. Bul-koop is dié belangrikste belegging wat die boer in sy kudde maak en derhalwe moet die bul soos ’n belegging beoordeel word. Dink dus daaraan in terme van rendement op jou belegging. Bulkopers moet meer aandag skenk aan hoeveel ’n bul werd is in plaas van wat hy kos. Kommentaar welkom cpeterm@iafrica.com

6. The importance of ICAR certification in performance recording How many stud breeders have heard about ICAR? I guess maybe a few dairy breeders but no beef breed breeders. So who is ICAR, are they important to you as stud breeder

The stated aim of the 'International Committee for Animal Recording' (ICAR), which is largely European based, is "to promote the development and improvement of the activities of performance recording and the evaluation of farm livestock". BREEDPLAN® participants now and then hear from SA Studbook and ARC spokespersons that ICAR accreditation of a recording system is very important and that the BREEDPLAN® beef recording and the Dairy Express milk recording systems are somehow sub-standard because of a lack of ICAR accreditation. I did some research on this and wish to put the importance of ICAR certification or accreditation into perspective for breeders in Southern African. Dairy ICAR Certification As mentioned above, ICAR is mainly a European organisation (including UK) and most European countries have ICAR certification for (i) 'dairy production recording' and (ii) 'dairy genetic evaluation'. There are only two countries outside

Europe with this ICAR certification namely Israel and the ARC, South Africa. Note that SA Studbook is not certified for (i) or (ii) above. Their certification only includes "Identification system for dairy cattle, beef cattle, milking sheep, milking goats and other species of animals as well as Herdbook Services". The important role players in dairy cattle milk recording and evaluation outside Europe are not ICAR accredited for example: US Holstein, the world's largest dairy cattle breed organization and a country with 4 million milk recorded Holsteins; Canada; Australia and New Zealand. ______________________________________________________________________ Beef ICAR Certification Although ICAR also accommodates beef systems, it is interesting to note that beef breeder's world wide, with a few exceptions, do their own recording without any ICAR certification. In fact, not one of the beef recording systems in the top ten beef producing countries of the world are registered or accredited with ICAR. Here are the top 10 according to 'OECD-FAO': Brazil 13%, USA 12%, China 11%, Pakistan 6%, Russia 4%, Australia 3%, India 3%, Argentina 2% and Canada 1%. The only countries/organisations with a ICAR Certificate of Quality for production recording of beef cattle are 10 European/UK countries and outside Europe only one namely the ARC (Recording of production of dairy cattle, beef cattle and milking goats and Genetic evaluation of dairy cattle – note not beef cattle). The big role players in beef cattle registrations and recording are not part of ICAR or subscribe to ICAR accreditation. To mention a few: USA with around 700 000 registrations per year, Brazil with over 300 000 registrations per year, Australia 190 000 registrations and Canada 130 000. Dr Hans Graser, Director of the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit that helps develop BREEDPLAN®, the world’s most widely used genetic evaluation system for beef cattle, was in fact a member of the ICAR beef working committee that helped ICAR develop the guidelines for beef cattle recording. He is quoted as saying that the ICAR guidelines for beef performance recording in many ways reflects the BREEDPLAN® experience in performance recording and genetic evaluation. Mr Jack Allen, Technical Director of the Agricultural Business Research Institute, has compared BREEDPLAN against the beef recording standards proposed by ICAR. He has advised that BREEDPLAN meets or exceeds the ICAR standards. ______________________________________________________________________ Comment regarding ICAR certification by leading industry role players in the USA, Canada and Australia 1. Chairman Technical Committee of Performance Beef Breeds of Australia (Mr A McDonald): "Although ICAR has recommended standards for collecting performance data it does not normally accredit the analytical models used to analyse the performance data. The traits measured in Australia and South Africa for analysis by BREEDPLAN are more suited to Australian and South African production systems and markets than the European production and marketing systems. It is very important to have rigorous quality checking of the performance records that are analysed in a BLUP analysis. The data checking and editing procedures used in BREEDPLAN are very rigorous and the analytical model used in BREEDPLAN to analyse the performance data is considered to be one of the most advanced in the world. ICAR also promotes international genetic evaluations to enable animals from different countries to be directly compared. They have done this successfully for dairy cattle but only on a very limited scale for beef cattle. BREEDPLAN conducts a number of across country analyses including a large Hereford analysis incorporating large datasets from USA, Canada, Argentina, Uruguay and Australia as well as a number of Australia/New Zealand analyses. It would not be difficult to incorporate South Africa into across country analyses." 2. Comment from the largest dairy system in the world. The chief geneticist of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) dairy genetics team on their dairy system (Dr George Wiggans): "We don't have ICAR accreditation. In the US the government supported Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory does the genetic evaluations. To minimize the chance of errors there are automated procedures that check for the prerequisites of each program and the return code after execution. Various comparisons are run, including maximum changes for further investigation. Interbull validation runs are done to check the impact of changes, and particularly for genomic evaluations, cut off studies determine the accuracy of the genomic predictions. A committee of the dairy industry is provided early access to the tri-annual evaluations for further checking."

3. Comment from the Director, Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock, Animal & Poultry Science in Canada. (Dr. S Miller): "Here in Canada I am directly involved in genetic evaluation of both beef cattle and sheep and neither of these evaluation systems are accredited in anyway by ICAR. At the Centre for the Genetic Improvement of Livestock, our developments in the area of genetic evaluation have been adopted in many cases worldwide. The quality of data for genetic evaluation is indeed very important and for this reason we put a lot of effort into meticulous data edits and cross referencing in our genetic evaluation procedures to ensure the best quality data possible is used in evaluation."

7. Research essential for modern genetic evaluation Breedplan users in Southern Africa are privileged in sharing in the latest research. An Australian Beef Genetic Technologies project recently released priceless data which will be of great benefit to Breedplan users worldwide. Some of the results are already being used by Breedplan.

One of the longest-running genetics projects in Australian cattle involved a massive data collection exercise involving 2,200 Brahman and Tropical Composite females over nine years, their steer half brothers over three years and about 3,500 of their bull calves over the first two years of their lives in a flagship project of the CRC for Beef Genetic Technologies. There have been around 775,000 live animal records taken in the 2,200 cows alone. Lead researcher, Dr David Johnston (Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit at the University of New England, Australia): “This has resulted in a world-first comprehensive understanding of whole herd profitability, with the key focus being the genetic basis of female reproduction in tropical cattle from puberty to six calvings. I can’t stress enough how important and rare this level of information is." Dr. Johnston added ”New knowledge about the genetic relationships between heifer puberty, lactation anoestrus in cows as well as indicators of female reproduction in bulls, all provide management recommendations for producers. Many more genetics results will become available as the data continue to be analysed over coming months; and DNA testing also means the genomics of tropical breeds and composites can be explored in these cattle." Dr. M Bradfield of Breedplan SA added that Southern Africa will benefit enormously. We have very similar environmental conditions and a large percentage of our beef population has a significant percentage of Bos Indicus that is ideally suited for our tough environments. The average calving percentage in South Africa is estimated to be a lowly 65% and despite environmental constraints should be closer to 80%. Technology is needed to identify those cows that can maintain their constitution, produce a heavy weaner and produce daughters whom are able to produce a calf every year. A better understanding of the biology of the cow and genetic markers will undoubtedly be a step in the right direction. Any comment regarding research matters info@agribsa.co.za

8. Meer as net ‘n ‘papier’ van afstamming Die kommersiële beesvleis bedryf heg meestal geen waarde aan die stamboek- of registrasie-sertifikaat van die bul nie. Moontlik omdat hulle dit net as ’n "stamboom-papier" beskou. Daar steek egter baie meer daaragter as net ’n lys van name.

Vir telers sê die multi-generasie LRF registrasie sertifikaat baie oor bloedlyne en ander stoet-sake. (LRF rasse het al 1 ½ dekades gelede weggedoen met die ouderwetse kort 'ma-en-pa sertifikaat"). Die sertifikaat is egter ook van waarde vir die kommersiële bulkoper. Hier ’n paar voorbeelde waarvan die algemene vleis en melk bedryf moet kennis neem. Generasies van visueel korrekte diere By genootskappe met konstitusioneel verpligte keuring is "die papier" bewys daarvan dat die dier en voorgeslag aan die genootskap se vereistes voldoen. By dié rasse word diere met fenotipiese foute nie geregistreer nie en ontvang nie ’n sertifikaat nie. Anders gestel, nageslag van ongekeurde of afgekeurde diere kan nooit geregistreer word nie. Kopers moet dus aandring op die sertifikaat as bewys dat die dier sowel as die voorgeslag aan bepaalde visuele vereistes gegrond op strukturele korrektheid voldoen. Wie wil ’n bul koop met korrekte bene maar sy vader het regop hakke gehad en kon beswaarlik dek. Sonder stambome geen prestasie BLUP-teelwaardes, wat wêreldwyd die belangrikste seleksie hulpmiddel is, kan alleenlik deur middel van (i) stamboom- en (ii) prestasie meting verkry word. Stoetteling is dus noodsaaklik. Prof. F Neser van die Universiteit Vrystaat sê in sy "Tegnieke wat die grootste impak gemaak het by teling van beeste" onder andere dat "BLUP teelwaardes die

akkuraatheid van seleksie dramaties verhoog het. BLUP het dit ook moontlik gemaak om diere oor jare, kuddes en selfs lande direk met mekaar te vergelyk, weereens as gevolg van die genetiese koppelings wat tussen die diere bestaan". Die "papier" is dus nie net ’n sertifikaat van afstamming nie maar ’n papier: - wat waarborg dat die bul en sy voorgeslag aan strukturele korrektheid vereistes voldoen het en - wat deur middel van BLUP teelwaardes uitspel waartoe die bul geneties in staat. Het ek iets vergeet? Kommentaar welkom cpeterm@iafrica.com

9. The South African beef cattle stud industry in 2011 Which breeds and breed types dominate the industry, how many breeders and animals do we have?

It's going well with the SA beef cattle stud industry (1). Over 3 200 breeders of 36 breeds have 268 200 females over two years (hereafter females) in possession of active breeders which is 48% more than a decade ago. Breeders increased over the same period with 18%. Have we reached the peak?

Here a short summary of the present situation in the beef (2) stud industry. Breed types are classified according to international custom as well as a 'local group' (3). I am aware that the proportional herdbook composition of females varies much between breeds (relative share of SP, Appendix, F1 cross and some even Base Register) which could be unreasonable towards certain breeds but have to take the number of females recognised by the breed society as registered. Refer to the different herdbooks - http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article09.htm

• The average herd size per breed is 75 females with a large variation from 4 to 207.

• The only breeds with more than 10% of the total population are the local breeds Bonsmara and Nguni (some call them 'state-breeds') with respectively 23% and 11% followed by Brahman with 10%.

• Only seven breeds have more than 10 000 females - in this order Bonsmara, Nguni, Brahman, Beefmaster,

Simbra, Simmentaler and Brangus. • Over 60% or 24 breeds have less than 5 000 females.

• The largest breed type group is the 6-breed 'local group' (3) with 41% of the population mainly owing to the large

Bonsmara population. • The composite group of 10 breeds is second with 27% of the population. This group is dominated by Beefmaster

and Simbra with nearly 60% of the females.

• The European and Continental group of 16 breeds has 18% of the females. One third of this group are Simmentaler.

• The Zebu group of Brahman and Boran has 14% of the population and 75% of this group are Brahman.

(1) = This analysis excludes females and breeders from Namibian breeders registering in SA which in the past were often included in SA stats. I took the Bonsmara per ARC report which separates stats for the two countries, Brangus as supplied by the society and Simmentaler/Simbra did not have separate stats and I used my own reliable estimation. Brahman and Braford data is from 2010. (2) = I classify Simmentaler, South Devon, Red Poll and a few others so called dual purpose breeds as beef because hardly any of these stud cows are milked. (The only official milk recorded non-dairy stud cows are 44 Simmentaler and 6 Red Poll). Internationally the term dual purpose is only applicable to breeds which are both milked and utilized as non-suckler beef production. (For example all the Central European countries have separate herdbooks and testing schemes for Beef Simmental and Dual-Purpose Simmental). (3) = The Local group according to the classification 'Declared landrace breeds – indigenous and locally developed breeds' by Beef Breeding in SA and consisting of Afrikaner, Bonsmara, Drakensberger, Huguenot, Nguni and Tuli.

Breeders The composition of the industry according to breeders differs from the animal composition because of herd size differences. The 'top 5' according to registered breeders are Brahman 460 (last years figure), Nguni 390, Bonsmara 378, Simmentaler 263 and Boran 258. Breed types by breeders amount to more or less ¼ for each group i.e. local, British, Continental and Zebu. Country breed type comparison Based on international recognized breed type groups the current situation is as follows: S. Africa Namibia Australia USA Tropical (Zebu, Sanga, Bonsmara, Santa en all Brahman based composite breeds) 68% 78% 31% 9%

Continental (Simmentaler, Braunvieh, Limousin, etc.) 18% 20% 14% 31% British (Angus, Hereford, etc.) 14% 2% 55% 60% This is today's state of affairs, what changed since a ¼ century ago? As far as I know we never had a comparison based on females > 2 years in possession of breeders in South Africa today and a quarter century back (hereafter way-back). Changes in the stud industry normally don’t happen over night and that's why I had to get all my old stats and books to get a picture of the state of affairs way-back. The separation of Namibian and SA stats 25 years ago was tricky (Namibian Stud Book started registering in 1994 – before that members of SA Studbook). The principles (1), (2) and (3) above are also applicable. I am also aware that a number of breeds have a much more open herdbook today than way-back because the SA Studbook Act of 1962 was very strict in herdbook entry rules.Today we don’t have a Studbook Acc per se and breed societies can enter whatever their AGM approves. The most important changes from way-back to today are summed up in the following.

• Bottom line, today we have ...... ......... more breeds, ......... less breeders, ......... more females, ......... larger herds.

• The number of breeds nearly doubled from 20 to 36;

• Total number of breeders decreased with 18% and females increased with 23% resulting in an average herd size increase of 25 females.

• There was a considerable change in the average membership per breed from over 190 to 90 today.

• Changes in breed type female population: The 'local group' maintained it's first ranking of >40% largely due to Bonsmara; the British/Continental group dropped from second (28%) to third (18%) and the Zebu are still third because the group is made up of only two breeds.

• Way-back 70% of all the females (20 breeds) belonged to the then numerically superior 'top-5 breeds' compared

to 60% today (36 breeds).

• What happened to the 'top-5 breeds' way-back? Today's ranking in [ ]. 1. Bonsmara still [1]; 2. Brahman to [3]; 3. Afrikaner to [12]; 4. Simmentaler to [6] and 5. Drakensberger to [11].

• Major increase in number of females (not % wise) from way-back to today in order of 'gained females' but subject to having more than 2500 females today: 1.Nguni; 2. Beefmaster; 3. Simbra; 4. Brangus and 5. Boran.

• Major decreases in number of females (not % wise) from way-back to today in order of decrease but subject to having more than 2500 females today: 1.Afrikaner; 2. Brahman; 3. Hereford; 4. Drakensberger and 5.Bonsmara.

• Maintained more or less the same number of females from way-back to today subject to having more than 2500 females today: Charolais and Simmentaler.

Comparisons of number of breeders are inferior to female population or registration comparisons and I will only report on the top-5 rankings way-back and [today]: 1. Brahman [1]; 2. Bonsmara [3]; 3. Simmentaler [4]; 4. Hereford [13] and 5. Santa Gertrudis [10]. Also read "All about breeds and purebreds" - http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article09.htm Welcome any comment on this cpeterm@iafrica.com ______________________________________________________________________ Sources: Various ARC Annual reports, National Beef Cattle Performance Testing Scheme, Beef Breeding in South Africa, Simmentaler Regsiters, Namibia SBA and own data.

10. Juistheid van ouerskap Vir teling volgens bloedlyne sowel as BLUP prestasie toetsing is die juistheid van ouers van kardinale belang. Is daar enige kontroles oor die geloofwaardigheid van stambome.

Ouerskap kontroletoetse word deur telersgenootskappe gebruik om die korrekte ouerskap d.m.v. DNA tipering te monitor. Dit word deur die land se Veeverbeteringswet vereis en is in genootskappe se konstitusie vervat. Aangesien elke kalf nie getoets kan word nie word kuddes en diere periodiek lukraak deur genootskappe vir ouerskap kontrole genomineer. Behalwe hierdie verpligte roetine toetse mag ’n genootskap die ouerskap van enige dier waaroor daar enige mate van twyfel bestaan laat kontroleer. Die getal kuddes en diere binne die kudde wat jaarliks genomineer moet word verskil van genootskap tot genootskap. Volgens wat ek hier en oorsee in hierdie verband ervaar het is my aanbeveling vir vleisrasse nominasie van ten minste 5% van die kuddes en by suiwel ten minste 2%. In die VSA het ek gevalle teëgekom waar telers uit eie wil die genootskap kontak om diere te nomineer. Publiseer name In geval waar ’n dier negatief toets is daar opvolg toetse en ander aksies. Indien die resultate positief is betaal die genootskap normaalweg vir die toetse en is my aanbeveling om die name van die kuddes in elke joernaal te publiseer.

Die benadering met hierdie kontroles is nie omdat telers nie vertrou word nie, maar om te bewys dat die teler en ras se rekords akkuraat is.

11. Breedplan's internet service popular The growth in Breedplan's internet service (called Internet Solutions) has been huge and clients world wide receive more than 1 mil page views per month. Breedplan societies in Southern Africa recorded over 1 mil in the last 12 months.

The leading societies for the twelve month period ending September 2011 are: 1. Brahman (South Africa) with 377 000 hits or 36% of the Breedplan traffic in Southern Africa. 2. Simmentaler (SA and Namibia) with 307 100 or 29% - (The gap between 1 and 2 decreased in the last three years). 3. Simbra (SA and Namibia) with 177 300 or 17%. 4. Brangus (SA) with 70 400 or 7%. 5. Brahman (Namibia) with 41 900 or 4%. It is interesting that the "top 3" above are also the most active in publishing their "life sales catalogues" on the web. Refer to "Hierdie veilings word baie besoek" in this eNEWS. The following figures represent Breedplan internet traffic for all cattle breed societies in Southern Africa.

12. Die natuur se reëls In beesteelt is daar genetiese verwantskappe tussen eienskappe waarmee telers vertroud moet wees omdat seleksie d.m.v. die meeste teelwaardes (dis geneties) baie kragtig is en ondeurdagte besluite negatiewe gevolge teweeg sal bring. Die natuur bepaal dat seleksie vir ’n eienskap ook ’n ander eienskap positief of negatief beïnvloed.

Groot bul met klein kalwers - aikôna! Daar is by alle beeste ’n hoë positiewe verband tussen 200-, 400- en 600-dae teelwaardes. Jou swaarste speenkalwers sal ook normaalweg op jaaroud onder die topgroep eindig. Ongelukkig bestaan daar egter ook ‘n genetiese korrelasie tussen hierdie gewigte en geboortegewig en is die kanse goed dat ’n bul met hoë 200/400/600-dae teelwaardes ook swaar geboortegewigte gaan teel. Soos altyd in die natuur is daar uitsonderings, maar sulke bulle kan alleenlik deur middel van hulle teelwaardes geïdentifiseer word indien die teler kalwers by geboorte sowel as op 200/400/600 dae weeg. Bul teel swaar speen en jaaroud kalwers en ligte klein koeie – nie sommer nie. Die natuur se positiewe korrelasie tussen gewigte veroorsaak ook dat voortdurende seleksie vir bulle met hoë speen- en jaaroud teelwaardes meestal ook groot koeie en derhalwe hoër onderhoudsbehoeftes tot gevolg het. Die ideaal is ’n gemiddelde geboortegewig met ‘n hoë speen- en jaaroudgewig wat dan afplat na ’n koeigewig rondom rasgemiddeld. Sulke bulle is egter net identifiseerbaar as die teler ........ - kalwers by geboorte weeg; - ten minste twee van die 200, 400 en 600 dae gewigte weeg en veral - die moeder en kalf saam by speen weeg. Sonder die werklike koeigewig by speen sal swaar speen en jaaroud diere ook ’n hoër koeigewig of MCW ontvang. Kan té lae geboortegewig teelwaardes kalwingsprobleme beïnvloed?. Bulkopers mik normaalweg vir bulle met ’n lae geboortegewig-teelwaarde maar moet oppas vir te laag. Dit kan weens bovermelde korrelasies lei tot laer groei en dus kleiner dogters met kleiner bekkens wat op sy beurt tot swakker kalfwingsvermoë by die dogter lei. Lees gerus 'Die verband tussen kalwingsgemak en grootte' in hierdie uitgawe. Is daar ook reëls betreffende voorkoms (die oog)? Ons het nou wel nog nie teelwaardes vir voorkoms nie (1) maar voortdurende visuele seleksie vir ’n sekere eienskap kan net soos hierbo ’n ander eienskappe beïnvloed.

(1) Hoofsaaklik omdat punting (score) by keuring net op klaar geselekteerde diere is en derhalwe vir ’n BLUP onbruikbaar is – BLUP stel eerder belang in die uitskotdiere wat nie vir keuring voorgestel word nie.

Data van rondom 12 000 Simmentalers wat deur geakrediteerde keurders (inspekteurs) op ’n liniêre skaal gepunt was, is in die VSA deur Kirschten ontleed hy vind die volgende verwantskappe:

• Daar is ’n baie goeie verband (hoë korrelasie van 0.70) tussen grootte en lengte m.a.w. groot diere is normaalweg langer as klein diere;

• Soos verwag is die hoek van die hakgewrig positief met die hoek van die kootgewrig gekorreleer m.a.w. ’n regop

hak dier het ook ’n regop koot;

• Seleksie vir goeie bespiering sal ook kapasiteit verbeter (dieper, breër diere) of andersom. Daarom vind jy dat die plat rankerige bees meestal nie goed gespierd is nie;

• Aanhoudende seleksie vir vroulikheid kan koeie met minder bespiering tot gevolg hê;

• Die uier eienskappe was met mekaar gekorreleer: Seleksie vir vlak uiers verbeter uier aanhegting en speen

lengte en koeie met dikker spene het baie keer ’n swak uier aanhegting.

Hierdie 'oog-sake' word in detail aangespreek in ’n beoordeling-handleiding waarmee ek tans besig is. Kan ’n klein dier lang wees? Soos hierbo d.m.v. navorsing bewys loop grootte en lengte hand aan hand. Suid-Afrikaanse toetse (te Mara en Irene) het dieselfde getoon m.a.w. seleksie vir grootte sal normaalweg ook lengte verbeter en andersom. Soortgelyk is kruis lengte (van sitbeen na heupbeen) met lengte van bees gekorreleer. ’n Kort bees het gewoonweg nie ’n lang kruis nie, kortweg kruislengte is relatief tot liggaamslengte.

Die ongewenste genetiese verwantskappe van die natuur kan tot ’n groot mate vermy word deur deurgaans ’n gebalanseerde benadering te volg. Ignoreer veral die kommentaar van die afslaer wat lotte met uiters hoë teelwaardes as goed uitlig. Die wonderlike of beste 600-dae teelwaarde is meestal nie die beste nie. Vermy uiterstes, omdat die oorbeklemtoning van enige vorm van seleksie meestal ongewenste gevolge het. Kommentaar welkom cpeterm@iafrica.com

13. It seems many breeders are not aware of this handy report The annual or bi-annual BLUP breed analysis does not always meets breeder's requirements for up-to-date EBVs. Therefore Breedplan developed a very useful Interim Report which is issued by the society office.

Breedplan has the following BLUP evaluations:

1. The GROUP analysis which makes use of all available pedigree and performance information on the breed society's database to derive EBVs for individual animals.

2. The INTERIM analysis which is managed by the society office each time the herd submits additional calf

performance records. The analysis uses the latest GROUP EBVs for the herd as a starting point, and updates the calf EBVs based on the new performance information.

Interim reports are very handy to obtain the latest data for your sale catalogue. It will also assist in selecting culls at weaning shortly after you weighed for 200 days. General notes on Interim Report

• Interim EBVs can be compared directly to the latest Group EBVs and the Interim EBVs for other herds. • Interim reports should be calculated by your society office after the submission of at least 25 new weaning, 400 or

600 day weights.

• The last EBV should change for the calves themselves, and closely related animals but only current calves. If the EBVs have not changed for a calf, check the Traits Recorded column to verify that measurement for the trait has been analysed.

• Interim EBVs can be placed on the breeders private Breedplan internet space and are easy downloadable on

HeadMASTER.

• Only animals in your possession and where both parents were included in the Group analysis will get interim EBVs.

• "New parents” (heifer calved or sire got first progeny since last annual report) will not get updated EBVs.

• The sire and dams EBVs of an "interim animal" will not be updated. The same is applicable to relatives in other herds.

Which traits are updated? Birth weight, 200 day, 400 day, 600 day, carcass traits, gestation length and scrotum circumference. The maternal traits i.e. milk, mature cow weight, maternal and direct calving ease will not be evaluated in Interim analysis. Wrong EBVs of valuable bulls Every time an analysis is run for your herd the analysis statistically checks whether or not the animals performance in each analysis group are within an expected range for that group Animals outside this range are called “Outliers” and its very important that your society submits the outlier-report to you for possible correction. Outliers may occur for a number of reasons. Generally, however, the problem relates to entry errors or poorly defined management groups (shows/sales). Extreme or abnormal EBV’s (indicated next to the breeding value with an inverted comma in this report) exceed the EBV range expected for that trait. Breeders should check the weight and management code for that animal and advise the office of any changes. I often found that the 400 and/or 600 day weights of show and/or sale bulls fall in this abnormal (or

outlier) range and are frequently not corrected by the breeder or the report is not submitted by the office to breeder. This leads to unconvincing or unlikely EBVs of the valuable sale and show bulls. Accuracies These are not recalculated in Interim analyses. However, accuracies calculated in the last Group run are reprinted on Interim reports as a guide to the minimum likely accuracy of the animals. Animals not analysed in the last Group will have a midparent accuracy. Midparent accuracy relies on the accuracies of the parents and does not include the extra information supplied by the new performance records of the calf. For further detail contact the breed society office

14. Is jou kudde beter as die gemiddelde kudde is SA? "Onmoontlik om te bepaal, ek boer ekstensief en kan my diere se prestasie nie met intensiewe stoeterye vergelyk nie". Gelukkig maak 'BLUP' dit moontlik omdat die effek van seisoene, voeding, bestuur grootliks geëlimineer word. Dit word wêreldwyd aangewend om kuddes en diere binne die ras met mekaar deur middel van teelwaardes of EBV's te vergelyk. Die kuddeverslag is gratis aan prestasietoets kuddes beskikbaar.

Diere se teelwaardes of EBVs m.a.w. dit wat aan die nageslag oorgedra word, word deur die BLUP stelsel bepaal op grond van die prestasie (soos bv. gewigte) van die dier en al die gemete familie binne die ras. BLUP kyk ook na baie ander wetenskaplik gefundeerde faktore om ’n beraming te maak van jou diere se genetiese standaard binne die ras ongeag waar jy boer. Sodra die jaarlikse BLUP analise afgehandel is (skakel u genootskap vir datum) word ’n belangrike gratis KUDDEVERSLAG vir elke kudde wat weeg vrygestel wat die volgende insluit:

• Elke dier, die kudde en die ras se teelwaardes of genetiese prestasie vir ’n aantal eienskappe (waar staan u diere en kudde teenoor die ras);

• Die teelwaardes (dus invloed van droogtes/voeding/bestuur uitgesluit) vir u kudde oor jare vir alle eienskappe om

sien of daar gevorder is;

• Bovermelde in grafiek formaat oor jare vir die kudde en ras.

• ’n Verduideliking oor die verslag en teelwaardes. Hoe kry ek hierdie belangrike inligting? Die genetiese kudde-inligting (genetika i.p.v. kos) is persoonlik en indien jy weeg kontak jou genootskap vir ’n wagwoord. Besoek dan die ras se webblad (sien link hieronder) en klik op die bewoording "Dokumente (Afr.) of Download Files (Eng.)". Suid-Afrika www.breedplan.co.za/Database%20-%20South%20Africa.htm Namibië www.breedplan.co.za/Database%20-%20Namibia.htm Nou sien u hierdie bewoording: "This facility is only available to 'breed X' members who have opened an Internet account and signed on using their Member I.D. and Password. If you do not have a 'breed X' Internet account, please contact your society to open one. It's free!"

• Klik op blou of groen 'signed on',

• Voltooi u lidnommer (Member ID) en wagwoord (Password) en klik Signon.

• Kliek 'Download Files' regs bo vir ’n tabel met aflaaibare data (kliek op die groen 'File Name' en save op u rekenaar) wat die volgende insluit:

GROUP_2011_April_percentiles.pdf = Persentiel van alle EBVs vir u ras. Handige verslag om die rangorde van u kudde

of diere binne die ras te bepaal. GROUP_2011_April_intro_herd_report.PDF. = ‘n Verduideliking van die KUDDEVERSLAG en teelwaardes – Lees

asseblief.

GROUP_HERD_REPORT.PDF = U KUDDEVERSLAG, die belangrikste genetiese seleksie-verslag met besonderhede soos hieronder beskryf.

GROUP-2011-April-breed-trend-all.pdf = Genetiese tendens in alle eienskappe van die ras oor jare. Die jare is vergelykbaar omdat Breedplan die effek van jare en voeding elimineer. U kudde se genetiese vordering/daling oor jare word in die Herd Report hierbo skematies uitgebeeld.

GROUPEBV.DAT = Die jongste teelwaardes vir oorlaai na 'Herdmaster' program. INTRMEBV.DAT = Dan is daar die heel jongste teelwaardes vir u kudde (sien datum regs) wat deur u genootskap op

hierdie spasie geplaas moet word. KUDDEVERSLAG uitleg Vaderverslag: Vaders wat in die laaste 3 jaar nageslag in u kudde verwek het. Indien geen getoetste nageslag nie en vader is onder 4 jaar word sy besonderhede hieronder by kalfverslag gelys. Moederverslag: Moeders van alle prestasiegetoetste kalwers wat in die laaste 3 jaar gebore is. Kalfverslag: Kalwers gebore in die laaste 4 jare sonder nageslag, apart vir bulle en verse. Genetiese tendens tabelle: Die "genetic trend" toon die genetiese prestasie van u kudde oor jare. Vorder u of nie. Jare is vergelykbaar omdat Breedplan die effek van jare en voeding elimineer. Veral die grafieke vir ras en kudde toon jou presies waar jy staan. Van die telers gebruik dit in hulle advertensies. Die 'phenotypic' tendens tabelle: Dit toon die gemiddelde gewig en die getal diere wat elke jaar beskikbaar was vir die ontleding. Omgewings en jaar invloede is nie, soos by die genetiese verslag die geval, uitgehaal nie.

Vergelyk gerus die getal diere met byvoorbeeld 200 dae gewigte vir ’n geboortejaar met die getal kalwers wat in daardie jaar gebore en aangemeld was.

As dit baie verskil word selektiewe toetsing toegepas wat jou foutiewe teelwaardes gee.

15. SA Holstein Manager visits Australia Mr Herman Duvenhage the CEO of SA Holstein reports on his visit to Australia.

The purpose of the visit was to investigate the Dairy Express milk recording system. I spent the first two days in the field with Geoff Potts, the Operational Manager of Dairy Express, mainly in NSW coastal regions. Most of the time, I could have sworn I am in South Africa, the country side, the people, the little towns, the setups and most of all the cows. They use the same genetics in Australia and do have the same problems as far as milk price, feeding cost is concerned. The two days was to determine how the data gets transferred practically to the main data centre and the link with the Breedplan ILR2 registration system also used by SA Holstein. This Dairy Express - ILR2 link is a great advantage. Dairy Express handles 700 000 cows in Australia alone. Total office staff of 4 people. Day 3 and 4 were mainly the role of the Lab, and process to follow when the data reaches the office and the report back to members. Within 24 hours after the samples reach the lab the member gets detailed report. Day 5 we used as a recap and a meeting with Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme (ADHIS) with the possibility of ADHIS doing SA Holsteins’ Genetic Evaluations in conjunction with institutional partners in Southern Africa. ADHS is a world leader and has already implemented Genetic Markers in their EBV’s. All in all an extremely fruitful visit with a lot of positive prospects for SA Holstein members, and their Society. Feel free to contact me: 082 572 7309 or herman@saholstein.co.za Thanks, Herman NOTE: Also read "SA Holstein makes important announcement at AGM" in this eNEWS.

16. Hierdie veilings word baie besoek Soos al voorheen hier berig word die populariteit van enige webtuiste gemeet aan die getal gebruikers of aantal transaksies. Besoeke aan Breedplan se Suider-Afrikaanse internet dienste styg steeds en het oor die afgelope twaalf maande meer as 1 miljoen transaksies beloop. Rasse met internet veilings dienste doen besonders goed.

’n Groot voordeel van die Breedplan stelsel is hulle fantastiese internet-gebruikers platform waar ’n magdom inligting gratis en sonder lastige registrasie of wagwoorde aan enige persoon met internet toegang beskikbaar gestel word. Die veiling-katalogus internet diens is indrukwekkend omdat die potensiële koper ’n aantal fasiliteite binne veilings verband kan gebruik. Lot nommers kan byvoorbeeld volgens verskeie sorteer opsies gerangskik word en die potensiële koper kan sy vereistes intik en kry dan net die lot nommers wat daaraan voldoen. Nog ’n groot voordeel is dat dit ’n 'lewendige katalogus' is wat aan die ras se databasis gekoppel is. Dit bring mee dat alle besonderhede amptelik is en die potensiële koper via die internet binne die veiling na diere kan soek wat aan sy/haar vereistes voldoen. Al hierdie opsies word hier verduidelik: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article04.htm Veilings besoeke Alhoewel hierdie diens vir alle Breedplan rasse beskikbaar is bestaan 95% van alle veilings op die netwerk uit Brahman, Simmentaler en Simbra. Hierdie drie rasse het oor die afgelope twaalf maande 115 000 'hits' aangeteken waarvan die nasionale Brahman met 6300 die beste besoek was. 1. Brahman 43 500 hits vir 25 veilings. 2. Simmentaler 40 000 hits vir 40 veilings. 3. Simbra 32 000 hits vir 39 veilings. Dit is nogal belangrik dat verkopers wat hulle veilings 'op die web wil plaas' vroegtydig by hulle genootskappe aansoek doen. Ander dienste Breedplan se aanlyn-dienste bevat ook omvangryke prestasie en stamboom inligting van elke dier, lewendig of dood, aktief of gekanselleer. Daar word nie, soos by sekere nie-LRF rasse die geval, net sekere informasie vrygestel nie. Alles word aan potensiële kopers en belangstellendes bekend gemaak.

• Volledige besonderhede van alle telers. Dit word hier verduidelik: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article31.htm

• Aanlyn navrae vir diere wat aan die kyker se vereistes voldoen. Sien hier:

http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article35.htm

• Opkyk van stambome tot sovêr as 12 generasies (hang af van hoeveel die genootskap destyds by rekenarisering opgeneem het);

• Teelwaarde navrae word in tabel of grafiek tesame met rasgemiddeld getoon;

• Besonderhede van dier se nageslag;

• Bekendstelling van KI bulle: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article27.htm

• Die inteling koëffisiënt van beplande parings of ’n spesifieke dier - Verw. na "Another unique Breedplan service for

breeders in Southern Africa" in hierdie eNUUS.

17. Livestock's "Windows©" Based on the number of user-breed societies and countries the International Livestock Register (ILR) system is the most popular livestock registry system in the world. It is used by 150 breed societies across 15 countries. In Southern Africa it is known as BREEDPLAN and hundreds of breeders with studs worth many millions have faith in it. ©2011 Microsoft Corporation

The ILR system is used by nearly all LRF member societies and the operator-staff love it. The software has been developed by the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI), Australia’s leading agribusiness information systems Company. The ILR system .........

• Runs on low-cost servers1) that are installed in the offices of the users who thus always own and control their data 1).= I found this a tremendous advantage especially for an individual society who switches to ILR, compared to the R-millions spend on hardware in the nineties by SA Studbook /Intergis. We paid R12 000 all inclusive in 2001 for a server which accommodated all the data of the large breeds Simmentaler/Simbra. The Brahman Registering Authority spend an similar amount for their hardware used for three breeds; Dr Paul Lubout tells me the Brangus paid R3000 for their server.

• Does not work on an royalty system but an upfront fee;

• Is robust software that registers around 700,000 new animals each year and the databases exceeding 50 million pedigree animals;

• Receives prompt and comprehensive support by ABRI’s 22 senior software analyst team;

• Includes "Internet Solutions" with its diverse on-line enquiries and data entry facilities and by far the most popular

cattle internet facility in Southern Africa. Read "Hierdie veilings word baie besoek" and "Breedplan's internet service popular" in this eNEWS.

In contrast to the IRIS cattle system, another foreign system used in SA, the ILR is very flexible and used by societies for Alpacas, Goat and Sheep breeds, around 50 cattle breeds2)., Buffalo, Elk, Horses and Ostriches 2).= Of which 14 breeds are currently involved in multi-country genetic evaluations!; You are a traitor In the mid-nineties when our annual general meeting was the first in Africa to decide unanimously to switch to the ILR or BREEDPLAN system, I experienced heavy opposition from SA Studbook and the ARC. One prominent 'board-room stud breeder' from another breed society phoned me and called me a traitor because I support FOREIGN software system. On my question if he uses a computer with the Windows© system he proudly said 'yes, for years already'. My Reply, then you are also a traitor.

18. Namibië vleisbees stoetbedryf 2011

Daar is net onder die 28 000 'vroulike diere oor twee jaar' (hierna diere) in besit 364 stoettelers van 20 rasse in Namibië*. Die grootste vyf rasse besit gesamentlik 83% van alle diere en 14 rasse het minder as 1000 diere. Die gemiddelde kudde grootte, wat baie tussen rasse verskil, is 53 vergeleke met 75 in Suid-Afrika. Simbra telers het die grootste kuddes gevolg deur Bonsmara. Wat telers betref styg Brahman uit met 105 gevolg deur 48 Bonsmara, 40 Simmentaler, 31 Nguni en 29 Simbra. In Suid-Afrika is daar 3235 telers van 36 vleis-rasse met 268 250 vroulik oor twee. (Namibië telers wat in SA registreer uitgesluit*). Die vroulike diere oor twee jaar in Namibië word hieronder skematies vertoon.

Nota: * = Omdat vroulik > 2 jaar nie beskikbaar is nie en in Suider-Afrika die gebruiklike maatstaf is, het ek dit self bereken op grond van totale vroulik diere wat voorsien is deur NSV en Die Suider Afrikaanse Simmentaler/Simbra genootskap. Die Bonsmara >2jaar diere is uit die L.N.R. se jaarverslag en SA Brangus het syfers van hulle Namibië telers voorsien. Ras tipe vergelyking Op internasionale basis word vleisbees-rasse meestal soos hieronder ingedeel. Hoe vergelyk Namibië met enkele ander lande waar ek betroubare statistiek kon opspoor: Internasionale groepering Namibië S. Afrika Australië VSA Tropies (Zebu, Sanga, Bonsmara, Santa en Brahman gebaseerde komposiet-rasse) 78% 68% 31% 9%

Kontinentaal (Simmentaler, Braunvieh, Limousin, ens.) 20% 18% 14% 31%

Brits (Angus, Hereford, ens.) 2% 14% 55% 60% Lees ook "The South African beef cattle stud industry in 2011" in hierdie uitgawe Bronne: NSV en P Massmann

19. Die professor se mening Prof. Frikkie Neser, Professor in diereteelt aan die Universiteit van die Vrystaat, gesels in hierdie uitgawe oor inteling. Sy vorige bydrae was "Die misterie van teelwaardes, indekse en gewigte" wat u hier vind. - http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article24.htm

Inteling en sy effek op produksie en reproduksie Inteling kan gedefinieer word as die paring van nader verwante diere. Almal stem saam dat dit die algemene definisie van inteling is. Dit is egter nie heeltemal so eenvoudig nie, want hoe verwant moet die ouers wees om dit inteling te kan noem? Almal besef dat die paring van ‘n vader met sy dogter of ‘n broer en suster definitief inteling is. Wat van die paring van ‘n oupa met sy kleindogter of ‘n neef met sy niggie, is dit inteling? By mense sou dit so wees en die wet verbied gewoonlik sulke huwelike, maar by plaasdiere kom dit dikwels voor. Stoetboere noem gewoonlik sulke parings, lynteling en verdien duisende rande met diere wat uit sulke kruisings gebore word. In enige populasie is alle diere van ‘n ras in ‘n meerdere of mindere mate verwant. Dit kan soos volg verduidelik word. Elke dier het twee ouers, vier grootouers en agt groot grootouers, maw die aantal voorouers verdubbel met elke generasie. In die tiende generasie behoort ‘n dier dus ‘n duisend voorouers te gehad het, as geen inteling plaasgevind het nie. As geen inteling plaasvind nie, sal ‘n dier in die twintigste generasie ongeveer ‘n miljoen voorouers hê. Die meeste rasse stam uit slegs ‘n paar basis diere, so byvoorbeeld stam die Bruin Switser populasie in Amerika uit 129 koeie en 21 bulle (Lush, 1949). Inteling moet dus gedefinieer word interme van ‘n spesifieke populasie of groep. ‘n Beter definisie is

dus die paring van diere wat nader verwant is aanmekaar as die gemiddelde verwantskap van die populasie of groep waaruit hulle kom. Die primêre effek van inteling is dat dit die kans vergroot dat ‘n dier dieselfde gene van beide ouers sal ontvang. Dit sal die mate van heterose in die populasie verlaag en die verwantskappe tussen diere tot meer as 50% opstoot. Inteling sal dus lei tot ‘n verhoging in homosigose, wat die maklikste manier is om sekere enkelgeniese eienskappe, soos kleur en horings, in die nageslag vas te lê. Verder kan dit ook gebruik word om groter eenvormigheid ten opsigte van byvoorbeeld rasstandaarde in ‘n kudde of ras te verkry. Dit is dan ook die basis wat gebruik is by die teling van baie van veral die Britse bees-en skaaprasse Intelingkoëffisiënt Die mate van inteling word uitgedruk as die inteling koëffisiënt (Wright, 1922) en dit varieer tussen 0 (geen inteling) en 100 (100% ingeteelt). ‘n Inteelt koëffisiënt van hoër as 6% word beskou as hoog en behoort vermy te word. Die intelingskoëffisient van ‘n dier is die helfte van die verwantskap tussen die dier se ouers, behalwe as hulle self ingeteel is, waarna ‘n klein korreksie aangebring word. Al is beide ouers ingeteel, maar nie verwant nie, is die nageslag nie ingeteel nie. Inteling kan dus opgehef word na slegs een onverwante paring. Die tempo waarteen inteling plaasvind is egter belangriker as die inteelkoëfisient. Hoe vinniger die inteling plaasvind hoe nadeliger is dit. Die nadelige effekte van inteling kan in ’n mate (nooit heeltemal nie) deur seleksie teengewerk kan word, mits inteling baie stadig plaasvind. Daar is egter ook ‘n hele aantal nadelige effekte wat deur inteling veroorsaak word. Die verhoging in homosigose beteken dat nadelige resessiewe gene wat genetiese defekte veroorsaak, soos byvoorbeeld skewe bekke, baie makliker na vore kom. Hierdie is een van die belangrikste redes hoekom neef en niggie huwelike verbied word, aangesien dit die kans aansienlik sal vergroot dat gebreklike kinders gebore kan word. Fiksheid is een van die belangrikste eienskappe vir die ekstensiewe beesboer in Suid-Afrika. Fiksheid is die kollektiewe naam vir eienskappe soos vrugbaarheid, aanpasbaarheid en oorlewing. Al hierdie eienskappe is laag oorerflik en dus baie moeilik om te verbeter in ‘n seleksieprogram. Ongelukkig word hierdie eienskappe ook die meeste deur inteelverval en basterweelde beïnvloed (Bourdon 1997). Inteelverval is die verlaging in die prestasie van ingeteelde diere. Hierdie verlaging is baie meer subtiel en belangriker as die voorkoms van nadelige ressesiewe eienskappe wat deur min gene beinvloed word en wat gewoonlik met inteling geassosieer word. Suid Afrika het geweldige natuurskommelings en ingeteelde diere pas baie moeiliker by hierdie wisselende omstandighede aan, hulle reproduksie en produksie is ook laer. In ‘n ondersoek na die invloed van inteling op die reproduksie van vroulike diere, is gevind dat ‘n verhoging van 1% in die intelingskoëffisient lei tot ‘n verhoging in die ouderdom tydens pubertyd en eerste kalwing (0.15 en 0.21 dae respektiewelik) (Smith et al. 1989). In ‘n ander studie daal die konsepsietempo met 0.07%, die oorlewing van die fetus met 0.43% en die oorlewing na geboorte met 0.75% (MacNiel et al. 1989). Beffa (1988) soos aangehaal uit Burrow (1993) het gevind dat die kalf- en speenpersentasie van ingeteelde Afrikanerkoeie (inteelkoëfisient van meer as 7%) respektiewelik 14% en 9% laer was as ‘n vergelykende groep minder ingeteelde diere (inteelkoëfisient van minder as 7%) van dieselfde ras. Hulle kalwers was ook 8% ligter. Groei en melkproduksie is twee ander eienskappe wat nadelig beïnvloed word. ‘n Verhoging van 1% in die intelingskoëfisient het ‘n verlaging van gemiddeld 0.06 kg in geboortegewig en 0.44 kg in speengewig tot gevolg. Volwasse gewig daal ook met 1.3 kg (Burrow, 1993). ‘n Verhoging van 1% in die intelingskoëfisient van die moeder het ‘n verlaging van 0.3 kg in die speengewig van haar kalf tot gevolg (Burrow, 1993). In melkbeeste kan ‘n verlaging van tot 22 kg in melkproduksie per 1% verhoging in die intelingskoëfisient verwag word (Schaeffer, 1991). Hierdie is alles eienskappe wat die boer se sak direk raak. In vandag se moeilike ekonomiese omstandighede is ‘n verhoging in reproduksie en produksie van die uiterste belang en definitief nie ‘n verlaging nie. In ‘n geslote populasie of klein kudde is die paring van verwante diere eventueel onafwendbaar. Dit is een van die redes waarom KI so ‘n belangrike rol kan speel om inteling te beperk. Nie net stel dit hoogstaande genetiese materiaal aan die teler beskikbaar vir die verbetering van sy kudde teen bekostigbare pryse nie, maar dit vergroot ook die kudde se genetiese basis wat op sy beurt groter variasie beteken. Seleksie vordering hang grootliks af van die variasie wat in ‘n populasie bestaan, hoe groter die variasie, hoe vinniger die vordering. Inteling verlaag hierdie variasie, wat beteken dat minder seleksie vordering gemaak kan word. Die doeltreffendheid van huidige evaluasie hulpmiddels, soos byvoorbeeld BLUP, versnel die proses. Omdat BLUP so akkuraat is kan uitstaande families baie makliker geïdentifiseer en intensief gebruik word in ‘n populasie. Dit mag ‘n verhoging in inteling tot gevolg hê en sodoende word die variasie in en die fiksheid van die populasie verlaag. Dit is dus baie belangrik om by die keuse van teeldiere die stambome baie noukeurig na te gaan vir gesamentlike voorouers om sodoende inteling te beperk. Rekenaarprogramme kan ook gebruik word om die inteling in ‘n kudde te beperk. Hierdie programme monitor die inteling en waarsku die teler as sekere parings tot onaanvaarbaar hoë vlakke van inteling gaan lei. Onverwante bulle moet ook gereeld in die kudde ingebring word, om te verseker dat die inteelkoëfisient

laag bly. Deur meer onverwante bulle in ‘n kudde te gebruik kan die genetiese basis in die kudde verbreed word. Sodoende word die gemiddelde vlakke van inteling in die kudde verder verlaag. Gevolgtrekking

Dit is in die belang van alle telers om die vlakke van inteling in ‘n ras so laag as moontlik te hou. Die variasie moet weer so groot as moontlik wees, om maksimale seleksie vordering te verseker. In kleiner kuddes is dit soms baie moeilik om dit reg te kry. Dit kan egter gedoen word met volledige rekordhouding en inbring van onverwante diere in die plaaslike populasie.

NOTA: Hoe om die inteling koëffisiënt van u diere d.m.v. van ’n Breedplan program te bepaal word in hierdie eNUUS verduidelik – Lees "Another unique Breedplan service for breeders in Southern Africa".

Verwysings Burrow, H., 1993. The effect of inbreeding in cattle. Anim. Breed. Abstr. 61:737 Bourdon, R.M., 1997. Understanding animal breeding. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey Lush, J.L., 1949. Animal breeding plans. Iowa state college press MacNiel, M.D., Dearborn, D.D., Cundiff, L.V., Dinkel, C.A. & Gregory,K.E., 1989. Effects of inbreeding and heterosis in

Hereford females on fertility, calf survival and preweaning growth. J. Anim. Sci. 67, 895 Schaeffer, L.R., 1991. Inbreeding in Canadian dairy cattle. Holstein Journal. Smith, B.A., Brinks, J.S., Richardson, G.V., 1989. Relationships of sire scrotal circumference to offspring reproduction and

growth. J. Anim. Sci. 67:2881 Wright, S., 1922. Coefficients of inbreeding and relationship. Amer. Nat. 56:330

20. Two important traits are recorded at 400days What happens around 400 days of age? Weighing and for many active breeders the scrotum circumference. When do we weigh and how do we measure.

Weighing and scoring at weaning time or around 200 days was discussed in a previous eNEWS (http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/March/Articles/Article11.htm). The 400 day EBV is calculated from weights taken between 301 and 500 days of age and is the best predictor for the animal's ability to grow to 400days. The reason for EBVs being much more accurate than raw weights are explained here: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article19.htm Because of the genetic correlation between weights, recording of the 400 day weight helps to improve the accuracy of other weight EBVs such as 200 and 600 day. Breeders should choose a weighing date that fits in with their management and is reasonably close to when the average age of the group of calves is approximately 400 days old. Although Breedplan can analyse two weights for the 400 day EBV, one weighing will normally increase the number of animals in the group. We unfortunately still see breeders that forget to point out animals that have been treated differently. For example, animals which are fed for the show or sale should be specified/flagged on the weighing list. This leads to wrong EBVs for the animal and relatives and is explained here: http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article08.htm The methods of submitting 400-day information

- The most convenient is submission by HerdMaster (www.breedplan.co.za/Herdmaster.htm);

- Breedplan “performance recording forms” can be requested from your office;

- Society approved Excel template;

- Electronic via performance submission facility offered by some societies.

Scrotum circumference Simultaneously with weighing for 400 days, breeders of Bos Taurus breeds should measure the scrotum circumference of all bulls between 300 to 700 days of age. Bos Indicus breeds like Brahman and Brahman based composites like Simbra, Brangus and Braford reach puberty later and should rather be measured when the 600 day weight is recorded but not later than 700 days or 23 months.

Isn't the scrotal measurement a waste of time? Anything related to fertility is not a waste of time and every stud breeder should therefore measure this. Research conducted in many countries with many breeds shows that committed selection for increase scrotal circumference EBVs will lead to (i) improved semen quality and production, (ii) a decrease in age of puberty, (iii) daughters reaching puberty earlier and (iv) greater life time reproductive potential for daughters. I specifically referred to scrotal EBV above since it reflects the genetic merit without the influence of an environment and can be compared across herds and environments. Scrotal circumference recording tips

• The measurements should be taken by holding the testicles at the bottom of the scrotum and placing a measuring tape around the widest point. The easiest is to use a measuring stick available from all/most breed societies.

• Measurements should be recorded in centimetres (to one decimal place). • While measuring techniques vary slightly, it is important to use a consistent technique for a whole group of bulls

preferably taken by the same person.

• The best method of submitting scrotal circumference information is via HerdMaster. The other methods of submitting 400day information mentioned above can also be used.

I rate scrotal circumference the most underrated trait in SA.

21. Interesante vrae oor meet en weeg Vrae wat Mnr Andries Gouws van Landbouweekblad aan Dr. Michael Bradfield, bestuurshoof van Breedplan SA gestel het.

Kan ek my beeste met beeste op ander plase in ander streke en toestande vergelyk? Die Breedplanstelsel weerspieël die dier se genetiese vermoëns. Om beeste op verskillende plase en in verskillende streke en lande te vergelyk moet hulle op dié plekke ook verwante nageslag produseer waarvan die prestasie direk met die boer se diere se nageslag vergelyk kan word. KI-bulle wat wêreldwyd gebruik word, is ‘n goeie voorbeeld. Hul nageslag word in verskillende omgewings aangehou waar ‘n mens hul prestasie kan meet. Dit word koppelings genoem en Breedplan kan aan telers die persentasie koppelings van hul kudde met die van die databasis verskaf. Kan ‘n koei met swak syfers ‘n baie goeie kalf speen? Die bul en koei dra elkeen 50 % van die genetiese eienskappe na die nageslag oor. ‘n Baie goeie bul en swak koei behoort ‘n gemiddelde kalf te gee. Die nageslag behoort dus beter as die koei en swakker as die bul te wees. Maar die werk nie altyd só nie. ‘n Swak koei kan ‘n paar goeie gene en ‘n goeie bul ‘n paar swak gene dra. Per toeval kan die goeie gene van die swak koei met die goeie gene van die goeie bul met bevrugting verbind met ‘n uitstaande speenkalf as gevolg. Net so kan die swak gene van die bul en die koei verbind wat ‘n nikswerd kalf sal oplewer. Die verbinding van gene met bevrugting staan bekend as Mendeliese segregasie – vernoem na die monnik Gregor Mendel. As gevolg van dié segregasie lyk ouers se kinders nie presies soos die gemiddeld van die pa en ma nie. Hoe gebeur dit dat ‘n bul met ‘n speengewig van 265 kg en ’n skoupunt van agt vir gewig se teelwaardes onder die rasgemiddeld is? Daar is verskeie redes. In baie gevalle word die skoudier uit sy speengroep gehaal en spesiale behandeling gegee. Die dier word dus nie in aanmerking geneem vir die ontleding van die hele groep se syfers nie en kry hy ‘n gemiddelde syfer van sy pa en ma wat dalk onder gemiddeld is. Die manier waarop diere se rekords gehou word, is baie belangrik. Elke dier moet binne ‘n bestuursgroep (veral by speen) met al die ander diere wat soortgelyke behandeling gekry het, vergelyk word. Kommentaar welkom admin@agribsa.co.za

22. How a Brahman breeder improved his herd fertility Dr Michael Bradfield and a Australian Brahman breeder discuss the reproduction EBV 'Days-to-Calving'

In 1995, as a PhD Student, I met Alf Collins. This maverick Australian Brahman producer had decided fifteen years previously that his number one priority would be to select for fertility in his herd. His formulae was simple, measure the correct traits to identify the correct bulls on breeding value that will ensure that every cow produces a calf every year. Alf Senior did not give a hoot about sentiment or being on top of the popularity stakes and his Brahmans were probably not acceptable to mainstream pedigree breeders at that time. How the wheel has turned. A perusal of his website (http://www.cbv.com.au/index.php) shows that Alf has made remarkable progress in the EBVs for his animals. I also noticed two bulls that went for R120 000 each at his latest production sale, both with good fertility information. It is for the commercial cattleman that he does his selections and the focus is very much on traits of economic importance. I met a Zimbabwean producer a few months ago who told me that he only uses semen from Alf’s CBV Stud. “The daughters are highly fertile and I farm cattle to make money,” he tells me. In this article, written together with Alf Collins Sr, a foundation BREEDPLAN® producer, I detail the steps and describe the required information for the trait “Days to Calving”. As a matter of interest, a lot of Namibian data is being collected for this important trait. The difference between Days to Calving and ICP It’s very simple, the measuring of ICP and age at first calf are easily influenced by differences in environment (nutrition) whilst the trait “days to calving” is a proper genetic measure. A high level of nutrition compared to a low level of nutrition will result in very different results in Inter calving period’s (ICP). In fact, I am of the opinion that it is scientifically incorrect to compare breeds on ICP or Age at first calf and make any conclusions regarding fertility. I believe that age at first calf and ICP are often more a reflection of the environment than the genetics. What is days to calving? What is required is a: - "bull in date" and a "bull out date" - an inventory of all cows mated to the bull - birth dates are recorded and - most importantly, a reason code is given for cows that fail. For example, from the 25 cows exposed five may have skipped. These are recorded and the information of the whole group is sent via HerdMASTER to the Society. This recording happens each year. Day’s to calving is a measure of the ability of a cow to cycle early (rebreed), to have a perfect uterine survival and to produce a calf every year. A short “days to calving” is thus indicative of these measurements. Cows with a “long” days to calving record are the ones that are undesirable. Most importantly, these measures also relate to the bull’s fertility i.e. the ability of a bull to produce a more fertile heifer that has the ability to produce a calf every year, ON TIME. How do I measure days to calving? The easiest is to use a herd management program. HerdMASTER, endorsed by all Society's, captures all the required mating information and the information is sent to the Society in the required format. How heritable is the trait and what results can I expect? Days to calving, like much of the other “fertility” traits (such as calving success or calving rate) is not highly heritable (between 5-10%) although the component traits that make up fertility are reasonably heritable. However, selection with EBV’s where all pedigree and progeny information is used has shown that remarkable genetic gains can be made when selecting for this important trait.

Below the genetic trend results from Alf Collins’ CBV herd showing a marked, favourable decrease in “days to calving” EBVs. In 1994 the average EBV was +3.0 days and this has improved to -3.0 days by 2007 i.e. a total of 6 days. This essentially means that there is a marked improvement in the ability of a cow to produce a calf every year, gestation length and ability to conceive early in the season.

Speed band mating’s at CBV In 1996 the cow herds at CBV were divided into specific groups based on their ability to conceive early in the season, usually with no rain, regardless of the nutrition. These cows are all lactating when mated on 1st October, every year. The 5 groups are identified C1 to C5. Alf had observed for more than 10 years that a percentage of the cattle had this superb trait, of rapid rebreed combined with perfect uterine survival (a highly heritable genetic trait) and they were keen to mate them exclusively to bulls descended from families with similar traits. Their daughter Lara was their cattle manager at a very young age and was keen to make her mark. Lara drafted the herd monthly at calf tagging date into mating groups. By the summer of 1996, they had progressed to having all cows in C1 to C5 speed band matings (i.e. measuring the ability to rapidly rebreed). The mating groups corresponded with their 21 day mating sequence of the previous summer, and resulting progeny groups. By using their demanding policy of mating large groups of females with single sires for only 21 days, they intended to highlight both sires and dams with the greatest desire and ability to mate successfully. Libido, athleticism, vigour, constitution, embryo survival; all are encompassed within this CBV management template, and all contribute to genetic progress for the cattle best suited to their cost structure and economic targets. Quality equals Fitness for Function Alf believes reproduction speed and adaptation are the major profit drivers in a beef herd AT A LOW COST OF PRODUCTION. Alf says he has bred his cattle to have inbuilt qualities of fast fleshing, rapid growth, and naturally gentle disposition. No drenches, no tickicides, and no fly sprays are used at CBV. Adaptation and resistance to a range of stressors is heritable and attractive to their strategies. Their cost of production is low, and kilograms per hectare per 100 mm of rain are optimised. They are searching for truly adapted genetics, and are finding them. They are using the best tools that modern science can deliver and applying the best of Darwinian principals, of survival of the fittest. According to Alf Sr, CBV is delivering “World’s First” Genetics. Speed Band Mat ings at CBV % of the to ta l Brahman herd

C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 1996 7.0 14.6 28.7 22.9 26.8 1997 8.3 18.7 17.3 36.7 19.1 1998 14.3 20.8 28.6 24.1 12.3 1999 14.6 18.8 32.7 18.5 15.5 2000 24.6 21.4 21.4 17.0 15.6 2001 26.8 23.1 16.8 20.6 12.7 2002 18.0 23.8 30.3 18.7 9.2 2003 16.3 25.3 29.5 20.4 8.4 2004 19.3 20.2 18.8 32.0 9.7 2005 20.9 19.8 22.6 28.9 7.8

2006 19.6 29.2 26.8 14.7 9.7 2007 23.0 27.8 19 18.4 11.7 2008 21.0 34.0 19.8 16.1 9.1 2009 35.4 22.7 17.2 19.9 4.7 2010 32.3 24.0 25.7 16.1 1.9

Control versus out of Control The $values will vary from year to year but the ratio relationship stands scrutiny across most regions. CBV operates all of its herds well inside the first two quarters of the financial year hence the need for a breeding season. This discipline has many downstream benefits. Alf believes that they must do everything in their power to manage for profit and risk management. Alf’s herd (CBV) constantly hunts for, and analyses for, genetics sieved and screened for impact on a commercial bottom-line margin.

Selection for bull fertility in the commercial herd. Often bull fertility is thought to be synonymous with scrotal size and semen quality. Whilst both these traits are important, it is the genetic ability of a bull to produce fertile daughters that is of uttermost importance. Commercial producers think that selection progress can be made by simply culling infertile cows. This is wishful thinking. When buying bulls from outside, commercial producers are simply replacing their own genetics with that of the imported bulls genetics. After three generations up to 87.5% of the genetics in the herd will reflect that of the imported bulls. Below a slide given by Aldam Stockman’s emerging producer of the year, Abel Naphtaly at the Stockmans school that illustrates the point.

Conclusion Whilst producers all claim that fertility is a high priority, the reality is that the required information is not being captured by most producers that will allow them to make genetic progress. The recording is extremely easy to do and all that is required is a bull in and bull out date, and an inventory of the success or failure of each cow exposed to the bull. Selection should be done using a “days to calving” EBV and this should replace age at first calving and ICP as measures of reproduction.

23. Verband tussen kalwingsgemak en grootte Is daar ’n verband tussen 'grootte van dier' en kalwingsgemak binne ras. Hier die antwoord in eenvoudige taal.

Fuerst het 15 mil geboortes van prestasie getoetste Simmentalers in Duitsland en Oostenryk bestudeer om die verband tussen kalwingsgemak teelwaardes(1) en grootte van dier(2) te bepaal. Die hoë verband is duidelik uit die grafiek waarneembaar m.a.w. hoe groter die bul hoe swaarder die kalf.

(1) = Kalwingsgemak van die bul as vader van die kalf. (2) = Groote bepaal deur kruishoogte mate. Hulle meet jaarliks rondom 40 000 dogters van toetsbulle.

Die bul wat groot diere teel (vertikaal = 106) se kalwingsgemak teelwaarde is swak (horisontaal = 80). Die bul wat ragemiddelde grootte teel (ongeveer 100 vertikaal) het ook ’n rasgemiddeld kalwingsgemak (ongeveer 100 horisontaal).

24. Consumer trends Are there differences between beef consumers in the USA and SA? I asked our associate member and sponsor Pick n Pay for comment.

We as beef breeders should take note of what is happening further down the chain. Here Pick ’n Pay's Mr. Donovan Hayes (General Manager Butchery - Western Cape) comments on the annual US 'Power of Meat' survey of supermarket consumer trends. Mr Hayes:" These comments are purely my views as opposed to being based on any hard factual evidence based on market research surveys" Research finding in US: Quality perception of case-ready product is at an all-time high. Pick ’n Pay: I would strongly agree. Products packaged in a controlled centrally-packed environment ensure a more consistent product and a consistency in presentation. US: More consumers have become bargain hunters. PnP: Absolutely - we have found that during these difficult financial times our hard hit South African consumers are also feeling the effects. Retailer competition is fierce, and as a result of the aggressive deep cut promotions shoppers are certainly bargain hunting and cherry-picking. US: About 1/3 of shoppers notice COOL labels and about 1/3 would pay more for U. S. product, but how much more was not asked. PnP: What is 'cool labels'? In Pick n Pay we continue to develop a range of Pick n Pay Brand products and we have enjoyed great success with these products. In some cases these Pick n Pay branded products are associated with other brands such as Karan Beef, Certified SA Angus Beef etc. and or linked to a laid-down protocol such as Pick n Pay Free Range Country Reared products.

US: More consumers are cooking meat, poultry and seafood at home but less than half consider themselves knowledgeable about cooking these foods. PnP: We don’t have any hard evidence to back this up however the influence of media, specifically television with dedicated Cooking channels (with celebrity status afforded to these so-called “Foodies”) must certainly play a role. Cooking methods both old and new and advice coupled with live cooking demonstrations may have assisted in bringing cooking back into the homes of our consumers. US: More attention is being paid to price and less to nutritional content. PnP: Price is of utmost importance as stated above, but the importance may vary in the different segments of the market. In the lower LSM group price is key and often the defining decision to purchase whereas in the higher LSM we have found that consumers are more mindful of what they eat from a nutritional point of view. There is however a trend of purchasing down in the latter group. US: About 20% of consumers continue to buy some organic/natural product, citing perception of long-term health benefits and better health and treatment of animals as the primary reasons, along with better nutritional value, taste, and freshness. PnP: The demand for more “natural products” is a niche market and has its limitations. It is however growing as more consumers, particularly among the younger consumers are showing a greater awareness and asking questions on issues such as environment, where product comes from etc. and it is possibly due to exposure to more information such as the internet. US: To eat healthier, consumers said they were reducing portion size and sodium content. PnP: Certainly portion sizes may have reduced as a result of affordability and coupled with numerous articles in the media with regards to healthier eating habits including reducing salt, preservatives, artificial colorants etc, these may also have had some sort of effect. Source: American Meat Institute; MeatAMI.com, 3/23/11 More detail, contact Donovan at eoosthuizen@pnp.co.za

25. Breë kruis, maklike kalwing ..... sê wie? Beoordelaar en soms ook die veearts: "Hierdie koei is baie breed tussen die sitbene en gaan dus maklik kalf". Moet nie sommer ’n stelling maak wat nie deeglik nagevors is nie! Die Duitsers (Bavarian Institute for Animal Production – Krogmeier+Luntz) het dit nagevors omdat werklike meting van derduisende diere gevolg deur ’n wetenskaplik gefundeerde ontleding die waarheid vertel.

Hulle het 16 600 eerste-kalf Simmentaler koeie van 1 200 KI-bul-vaders se sitbeen-breedte (sien figuur) met ‘n maatbandgemeet. Vir die rekord, die gemiddelde sitbeen breedte vanhierdie jong koeie was 20cm met ‘n variasie van 14 tot 28cm.Tydens kalwing het hulle kalwing proses van elk koei presiesaangeteken en die data toe statisties ontleed. Ek neem aan dathierdie bevindinge ook op ander Bos Taurus vleisrasse (Britse en Europese rasse) van toepassing kan wees maar betwyfel ofdit ook vir Bos Indicus en Indicus tipes (Brahman en Brahmankomposiete) geld. Geen verband tussen kruis-breedte en kalwingsgemak. Hulle het die koeie in vyf ewe groot kruis-breedte groepe verdeel en die % moeilike kalwings was as volg:

1. Baie nou sitbene (3307 diere) 6.2% 2. Nou sitbene (3277) 7.3% 3. Gemiddeld (3213) 5.8% 4. Wyd (3445) 6.2% 5. Baie wyd (3376) 7.5%

Die betrokke wetenskaplikes het tot die slotsom gekom dat groter koeie geneig is om ’n breër kruis te hê maar het ook swaarder kalwers wat enige voordeel van beter kalwingsgemak elimineer. Navorsing oor kalwingsgemak en kruise Ander navorsers (1) het ook bewys dat swaarder (groter) vleisbeeste normaalweg ‘n groter pelvis oppervlakte het (binne mate) maar dat hierdie koeie nie noodwendig makliker sal kalf nie omdat "larger cows have proportionally bigger calves, which tends to offset the advantage of a larger pelvic area.” Al is daar ’n voordeel in relatiewe interne pelvis-oppervlakte metings het studies (2) bevestig dat wat jy van buite aan die kruis sien (breedte, lengte, helling) selde ’n aanduiding is van die interne pelvis oppervlakte of grootte (soos met ’n pelvismeter bepaal).

(1) = Notter; Bellows; Laster + Johnston. (2) = Brown; Deutscher; Johnson + Univ. Missouri.

Wat is dan die grootste oorsaak van kalfprobleme? Price + Wiltbank, in ‘n oorsig oor 80 kalwingsgemak-studies, sê dat geboortegewig sonder twyfel uitstaan as die hoof oorsaak van kalwingsprobleme, gevolg (met ‘n redelike afstand) deur koeie se interne pelvis-grootte. Dit is hoekom ons die gebruik van Breedplan se geboortegewig EBV aanbeveel. Waarom EBV, wat is fout met die gewig? Die geboortegewig van ‘n kalf kan as riglyn vir kalwingsprobleme gebruik word, maar die geboortegewig teelwaarde of EBV is ‘n baie beter voorspeller van kalfprobleme aangesien dit data van verskillende bronne kombineer. Namate die bul meer nageslag verwek, verbeter die akkuraatheid van sy geboortegewig EBV en is sy eie geboortegewig van geringe betekenis. Dit is hoekom jy ‘n 45kg geboortegewig bul met ‘n +1 teelwaarde en ‘n 40kg bul met ‘n +1.5 teelwaarde kan kry. Kommentaar oor hierdie navorsing welkom cpeterm@iafrica.com

26. A master computer program for breeders It's so easy and uncomplicated to submit birth notifications and performance data to the office with the HerdMASTER programme that everyone with a computer should consider this software.

Since the beginning of the year over seven hundred users have upgraded to the new HerdMASTER 4. It’s been a massive undertaking and the HerdMASTER team has so far held over 20 courses to ensure a smooth transition and to get users up and running. Check here for the next course - www.breedplan.co.za Me Charlotte Schuite, from Heelbo Boerdery uses the new HerdMASTER 4 for her Braford, Hereford and SA Mutton Merino studs. She says: “HerdMASTER has become an essential tool in the management of our stud and commercial herds. The program is very user-friendly and once the data is accumulated various reports can be generated in order to simplify decisions regarding the selection of animals. HerdMASTER also proved to be successful in the management of crossbred animals. The program is 100% compatible with the Breedplan system and therefore saves us a lot of time when it comes to capturing data. One of the greatest attributes of the program is the fact that we can accommodate 3 different herds (databases) in one program. Bulk changes and bulk addition of animals can be done and various other new features have made this program a pleasure to work with. It saves time and money; a precious commodity these days!!" Dr Michael Bradfield, Agricultural Business South Africa and HerdMASTER CEO says that the program is ideally suited for capturing information for Breedplan's reproduction trait called “Days to Calving”. He adds: "The whole layout has changed and new births are recorded out of mating’s, thus ensuring the mating group remains intact. Preg test results are included and the mating information is sent to the Society with a click of a button." Read xxxx more on Days to Calving. More commentary "Farming is a business, and time is a scarce resource. This is exactly where HerdMASTER comes in." (Diethelm & Katja Metzger, Simbra breeders,Namibia) "HerdMASTER's reports help you make informed decisions." (John Devenport, Limousin breeder). "I do everything with the program." (Ferdie Naude, Brangus breeder) "The program has undoubtedly made my herd management a lot easier and I enjoy the fact that I can customize it to meet my own individual needs." (Llewellyn Angus, Simmentaler breeder)

"HerdMASTER is definitely the best herd management program that we have ever used. The support we get is wonderfull." (Jan van Zyl, Brahman breeder) Cheap upgrade to the new version Mr. Duard Cloete from the HerdMASTER support team says: "The program has a slick user interface, updates itself automatically from the Internet and has an online help function that allows our support staff to directly log onto your computer to offer support. Another good reason to upgrade is that we have kept the user support fee of R795 (Excl VAT) the same for the last two years. An upgrade for HerdMASTER 3 users is FREE OF CHARGE." Consult this link for more details or phone 012-667 5258. www.breedplan.co.za/Herdmaster.htm

27. Wat is die voordele van prestasie toetsing? Vir telers wat nog nie toets nie word die voordele hier in telegramstyl uitgespel.

Holstein telers moet asseblief hulle kantoor nader oor al die voordele wat melkaantekening inhou. Lees ook elders in hierdie eNUUS oor die nuwe toesskema wat van die Holstein genootskap beskikbaar is In die suiwelbedryf is toetsing al so belangrik dat daar wêreldwyd geen KI bulle is wat nie getoets is nie. Voordele vir vleisbees tellers

• Voeding en genetika word grootliksgeskei - ontvang syfers oor die dier se beraamde genetiese meriete m.a.w. dit wat oorgedra word aan die nageslag.

• Verminder die risiko van seleksie besluite. Alle teelwaardes het 'n akkuraatheid telling wat die betroubaarheid van

teelwaarde aandui. Soos ’n JSE-aandeel met 'n risikogradering geheg aan dit;

• Vergelyk die genetiese prestasie van jou diere en kudde met ander diere, kuddes en die ras. Jy weet presies waar jy staan. Verw. ’n artikeloorKuddeverslagin hierdiee NUUS.

• Vinnige seleksie besluite te danke aan die Interim-teelwaarde verslag wat die genootskap uitreik na weging van ’n

groep.

• Nader u genootskap oor koste. By sekere rasse is die diens gratis en ander vra minder as ’n kwart speenkalf per 100 diere per jaar.

Ek beveel sterk aan dat telers wat nog nie toets nie die volgende lees:

• http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article19.htm • http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/March/Articles/Article22.htm • http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/March/Articles/Article16A.pdf • http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article12.htm • http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article24.htm • http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article26.htm

28. Another unique Breedplan service for breeders in Southern Africa To monitor inbreeding, Breedplan developed an internet mating predictor facility. This service, freely available to everybody without cumbersome registration, allows the user to enter any sire and dam and the programme will determines the inbreeding coefficient and expected EBV of the progeny. Many use it to check the inbreeding of an exciting stud bull by entering the parents. You can also enter more combinations like one sire with a number of cows or your own female herd with a sire. Also read "Die professor se mening" in this eNEWS.

A particular sire and cow may initially appear to be unrelated, but if they share several common ancestors three or four generations back, their offspring might suffer from inbreeding. The internet mating predictor uses all the pedigree records of a breed to check if the sire and dam of the planned mating have ancestors in common and calculates the following for a specified mating:

° The inbreeding level or coefficient,

° details on the depth of the pedigree of your planned mating in your breeds herdbook, ° the expected EBVs of the unborn progeny, ° displays the extended pedigree of the progeny and ° displays an expressive EBV graph for the progeny.

What is inbreeding in dairy and beef cattle

"Inbreeding is the mating of related animals. This simply means they have one or more ancestors in common; the closer the relationship between two animals, the greater the amount of inbreeding in the resulting progeny." (Guest). "In a broad sense, all members of a breed are related. As a result, any breeder is practicing some degree of inbreeding. Therefore, we generally reserve the term inbreeding for the mating of animals that are more closely related than the average of the breed." (Northcut) "Outbreeding or outcrossing is the mating of animals that are less related than the average degree of relationship within the population. It is the opposite of inbreeding." (Parnell).

Outcross with inbred animals. If you have two good animals you wish to mate but both are inbred don’t be concerned. Two inbred animals that are unrelated themselves will have outcrossed progeny.

How far back in the pedigree are we talking? "For practical purposes, if two individuals have no common ancestor within the last five or six generations, they are considered unrelated and there progeny would be considered outbreds". (Vogt et al.).

Measurement of the degree of inbreeding The amount of inbreeding for a particular animal is measured by its inbreeding coefficient, which is the probability that any pair of specific genes have been inherited from a common ancestor. In cattle this value ranges from 0% to hardly ever above 50%. A problem with small registered breed populations is that they normally have a higher occurrence of inbreeding. Refer to article on stud population. Many breeds in SA have investigated the inbreeding level of their population and I suggest you contact your society for the average level and more details on their analysis. Table 1: Level of inbreeding in the progeny arising from mating of the following (NB: In these examples it is assumed that the parents are not already inbred):

Mating Inbreeding coefficient

Father/daughter or mother/son 25%

Full brother/full sister mating 25%

Half brother/sister – grandfather/granddaughter or grandmother/grandson 12.5%

Grand dam x grandson – uncle/niece or aunt/nephew 12.5%

Common grandparents (cousins) 6.25%

Animal has a single common great grand parent 3.1%

Effect of inbreeding on production/reproduction It is well documented that inbreeding can reduce performance (called inbreeding depression), especially in traits such as fertility, liveability, and longevity followed to a lesser extend by growth and milk with little or no effect on carcass traits. Burrow investigated the effect of inbreeding in a dry, tropical environment on zebu-derived beef cattle. In general, inbreeding had adverse effects on the following performance traits examined: Productive traits (growth, fertility, feed conversion efficiency, carcass and meat quality attributes), adaptive traits (resistance to cattle ticks, gastrointestinal helminths, buffalo flies and heat stress) and temperament (flight speed). Regarding dairy cattle Bijma states that basically inbreeding has three different negative aspects: (i) It causes a decrease of genetic diversity and reduces the potential future genetic progress, (ii) It causes a decrease of fitness and reproduction traits and (iii) it causes an increase of the occurrence of genetic defects.

Virginia Tech University showed that dairy animals with high levels of inbreeding typically have lower milk production, more health problems, poorer reproduction, and shorter productive life. These interesting results are presented at the end of this article. Advantages: Buchanan states that inbreeding can have benefits to a breeder if the breeder understands how to monitor it and is willing to sacrifice some performance in the process. "Inbreeding increases the ability of an individual to consistently pass on its characteristics". _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Your Breedplan mating program works like this

Wording in blue refers to the exact wording as presented on your screen.

Visit your breeds Breedplan web page (see direct link at end of article) and choose 'Mating Predictor' for the following – Click on Mating Predictor for the Mating Predictor Screen below.

Enter the correct ID of the sire(s) and Dam(s) separated by commas. Then choose Search (use the Clear box before you enter a new selection). - Ignore Dam Calving Year(s) option. - Note Display Results By option if you entered a few choices. - The Sort options are Animal Name, Animal Ident and Birth Date. Note: Breedplan breeders have a handy option to choose their females without typing them in. This is explained below.

As an illustration planned mating I entered the well known Simmentaler AI sire Jahdal Ibbie, in memory of his breeder

Mr. AG Le Roux who passed away last month, an Ibbie grand daughter Diana's Victoria and a national champion

female Salerika. The result is presented below. Note that you can copy-paste this information from the web page to a document like I did here.

Here you have the Expected Average Progeny Value (EBVs) and Inbreeding Coefficient of the two combinations. Compare the EBVs with the breed average in the bottom row. Click on the blue Breed Avg. wording for a detailed ranking of the breeds EBVs. • The EBVs of the planned mating are called mid-parent values (1) which are a sire+dam/2 value. What is the estimated

value if the dam has no value? Half the sire (sire+0=1/2 sire). Statistically correct, but I think it's meaningless and suggest to use animals of breeders which performance record. Note the blue highlighting of 2 of Ibbie's traits which indicates a breed trait leader in the highlighted trait.

(1) The mid-parent value tells you what, on average, to expect in terms of progeny breeding values if the mating took place an infinite number of times. Of course, if there is only one mating, then the progeny outcome could be quite different. But on average, after hundreds and hundreds of progeny, their values are predicted to sit at this mid-parent average. (Breedplan)

• The Inbreeding Coefficient is revealed as follows:

I suggest clicking on the blue 'Inbreeding Coefficient' wording for an interesting article on this subject. Note the high degree of inbreeding in the Ibbie-Victoria combination in the Ibbie analysis above. This is confirmed in the pedigree presented below. My guideline is one should be very cautious of anything above 6%. In the beef pedigree world an inbreeding coefficient above 10% is unusual.

• If you wish to see full details of any animal, click on the blue name.

• Generations are revealed as follows - Min./(Avg.) generation: 5/(8.6)

What does 5/(8.6) mean? The minimum number of generations in the animal’s pedigree and, in brackets, the average number of generations in the animal's pedigree as currently available on the database. Shallow pedigrees will result in less accurate calculation of the inbreeding coefficient.

• Click on the blue wording Pedigree display of this mating on one of the two matings for the following pedigree. You

can select copy and paste this.

• The EBVs of the planned mating calf is also presented in this diagram with 50% as breed average.

Breeders will find this most useful Breedplan performance participants have a bonus in utilizing their personal web space at Breedplan to base their selection on cows in the herd. 1. Contact your breed society office to register your own web space at Breedplan – it's free and non-recurrent.

2. Go back to the Mating Predictor screen on page 3 and click on 'here' as in blue in the following: "Enter selection

criteria for Sire(s) and Dam(s) - Then click [Search] For enhanced selection criteria, use Mating Predictor after logging on here '

3. In the next screen enter your member number in Member ID and Password. You are now on your private Breedplan

web site – note your name top left and member number top right. 4. Click on 'Mating Predictor'. This will disclose the Mating Predictor Screen as on page 3 with a new row called "Dam

Ownership Selection". Choose 'My active females' for all your active females and the sire or sires of your choice. Reduce the number of females by entering a birth year or more in 'Dam Caving Years'. You will then get the same screens as above for all your combinations.

5. If you choose Display Results by Sire you will get a list with the sire on top followed by all the cows. Display Results by Dam will present one mating at a time and you have to click Next (top right) for the next mating.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Virginia Tech University study with Holstein mentioned above

The table shows inbreeding depression for lifetime and individual lactation traits of Holsteins from a study by Smith, et al. at Virginia Tech. The changes are expressed "per 1% increase in inbreeding." This means that the lifetime economic loss for a mating producing 6.25% inbreeding would be R200 X 6.25 = R1250 expected loss from such a mating.

Trait Inbreeding depression per 1% increase in inbreeding

Lifetime net income (R) -200

Age at first freshening (days) +0.36

Days of productive life -13

Lifetime total milk production -360

Lifetime total fat production -13

Lifetime total protein production -12

First lactation milk production -37

First lactation fat production -3

First lactation protein production (lbs.) -1.4

First lactation average somatic cell score -0.004

First calving interval (days) +0.26

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Links to your breeds Breedplan mating predictor

Click on 'Mating Predictor' under the emblem on the page you get by clicking on the following: South Africa http://www.breedplan.co.za/Database%20-%20South%20Africa.htm Namibia http://www.breedplan.co.za/Database%20-%20Namibia.htm

29. Nuus van Namibië se stoet telersvereniging

Mnr. Jacque Els, die Bestuurder van die Namibian Stud Breeders' Association, berig as volg: "Na ‘n tydperk van ‘n personeeltekort is die personeel weer voltallig en die kantoorpersoneel, bestuur en lede verwelkom Margaret Ann Hayward terug in ons geledere. Die uitsonderlike reënseisoen wat hierdie jaar beleef was, het saam met die goeie weidingstoestande wat deur ‘n ieder en ‘n elk verwelkom en waardeer word, egter ook vir die perde industrie groot verliese gebring. Muggies was tot in Augustus nog ‘n ernstige problem. Groot getalle perde, en selfs donkies is hierdie jaar dood as gevolg van ‘n stam van die perdesiekte virus, wat nie ingesluit was in die beskikbare entstof nie. Veral die Warmbloed industrie was swaar getref, en hulle getalle het as gevolg van die groot verliese, gedaal. Die Arabierperd bedryf was gelukkig nie so swaar getref nie. Lede van die Arabierperd telersvereniging het weereens hierdie jaar goed gevaar op die Fauresmith en Walvisbaai Uithouritte. Die Santa Gertrudis telers van Namibië is nou verenig in een Telersvereniging. Dié telers wat tot nou toe hulle registrasies in die R.S.A., by S.A. Stamboek gedoen het, is nou in die proses om hulle data te laat oorplaas na die NSV. Ons verwelkom hulle as nuwe lede. Hierdeur word die getalle van die Santa Gertrudis diere op die Breedplan Sisteem aansienlik vergroot, en sien ons uit na die volgende” Groep BTW Analise” wat volgende jaar vir hierdie groter groep diere gedoen sal word. Die Namibië Stoettelers Vereniging ondersoek tans die moontlikheid om ‘n eie ultrasoniese skandeermasjien vir Namibië aan te koop. Die Namibiese Simmentaler/Simbra telers het reeds aangetoon dat hulle belangstel om deel te wees van hierdie proses, aangesien hulle van die begin af, jaarliks saam met die Brahman telers betrokke was by die skandering van hulle diere. Die eerste Brahman Performance Report het so pas vir die Namibiese Brahman telers wat deelneem aan prestasietoetsing verskyn. Deelname aan prestasietoetsing toon ‘n toename in meeste rasse. Baie geluk aan die Dexter telers wat besluit het om almal aan prestasietoetsing deel te neem, asook die Brahman, Braunvieh, Hereford, Limousin en Nguni telersverenigings waar meer as 50% van die telers aan prestasietoetsing deelneem." Groete, Jacque jacque@iway.na www.nsba.iway.na Eie berig Volgens AGRA, wat die oorgrote meerderheid bees stoetvee veilings hanteer, was hulle gemiddelde bulpryse oor die afgelope drie jaar: 2008 = R24 100; 2009 = R28 700 en 2010 = R29 900.

30. Pfizer Bul van die Jaar - Beste bulle op voorkoms en prestasie Uitslae en foto’s van LRF rasse se wenners.

Deelnemende bulle word eers binne die ras beoordeel volgens die ras seteelwaarde keuse en visueel gepunt. Die verhouding van oog:teelwaarde moet50:50 wees. Die minimum getal 1 to 3 jaar oue bulle per skou is ’n ras aangeleentheid en bulle moet ten minste ’n geboorte en speengewig teelwaardehê. Die ras-wenners word dan op visuele grondslag gesamentlik beoordeel deurinterras beoordelaar Martin Seyfferdt (’n beoordelaar wat deur die Suider-Afrika Interras-beoordelaars Verenging aangestel is) vir die beste op die skou. Aan die einde die siklus ding alle skouwenners mee vir die Suider-Afrikaanse Pfizer Bul van die Jaar.

Alle foto’s deur Landbouweekblad wat ook hierdie Bul van die Jaar borg. Die Vryburg uitslae was in die laaste eNUUS – Mnr. Hattingh se Simmentaler was die kampioen. Sien hier - http://www.lrf.co.za/Newsletter/July/Articles/Article17.htm Hieronder is die uitslae vir al die ander skoue: Royal skou Nie LRF rasse: Kontak asb. die betrokke genootskap vir besonderhede omdat dier-informasie op nie-LRF rasse se Logix stelsel nie, soos by Breedplan die geval, vryelik aan almal beskikbaar is nie. Die eienaars van wenners was Hereford - Willem de Waal Boerdery; Rooi Angus - K de Klerk; Pinzgauer - B van Zyl. Die Hereford was die interras wenner. LRF rasse:

Brahman BRANDWATER MR HOT 2j 1mde L du Plessis, Fouriesburg Vader: Bos-Blanco Ele Lox 115

Rooi Brahman DAMVIEW MR BAFANA 2j 6mde T Braithwaite, Bergville.

Vader: Damview Bafana 5101

Limousin LEADWOOD EXPLOSIVE 2j 1mde J + T Davenport, On-The-Vaal.

Vader: Devlan Length

Simbra BIGGARSGAT MR. MUSCLE 1j 7mde CA Froneman, Dundee Vader: Marimba Red Prince

Simmentaler LEKKERVLEIS DJ 0971 1j 8mde Jacobs-Boerdery, Wasbank.

Vader: Lekkervleis 0350

Pretoria skou Nie LRF rasse: Kontak asb. die betrokke genootskap vir besonderhede. Braunvieh van Mnr. C Harman, Zeerust. LRF rasse

Brahman RIO Mr Super Salute 09113 2j L Labuschagne, Letsitele Vader: Rio Mr Royal Salute

Die algehele skou wenner

Limousin DEVLAN SOLUTION 0859 2y 11mths J+T Devonport, Houghten

Sire: Devlan Best Blup 04152

Simmentaler SERSIM LORANT 1j 11mde M J Res, Heidelberrg

Vader: Jastlem Sloet 2de

Grootfontein

Brahman OKABRA 08-0772 2j 11mde S+BK Schneider, Grootfontein

Vader: Okabra Mars

Simbra RUMBA FANIE HB0971B 2j 3mde H Breedt ,Grootfontein Vader: Boetan Frik Skouwenner

Windhoek

Brahman LARED SMOKE DB0833 3j D Botes, Windhoek Vader: Lared Sir Crespo Ook Skouwenner

Braunvieh AURORA NAMDOLLAR 2j 7mde Aurora Braunvieh Stud, Windhoek

Vader: Christopher Stefanus Nampo

Limousin OMBENDE HWZ0966 2j 3mde Zirko Limousin, Windhoek Vader: Pleasure

Simbra KAMAB DM09422 1j mde D Metzger, Windhoek Vader: Bleka Kovu

Simmentaler IBENSTEIN ELB MK0939 2j 1mnd M Krafft, Dordabis

Vader: Hauk Edgar

31. Landbou-produkte pryse

’n Kort weeklikse oorsig oor lewende hawe pryse kry jy hier by Landbou Weekblad: www.landbou.com/markte/veilingspryse?quicktabs_2=2 FNB het ’n gratis nuusbrief "FNB Agri Weekly" met prys tendense van alle landbouprodukte. Dis handig en insiggewend. Hier is die web-link en ’n voorbeeld. https://www.fnb.co.za/business-banking/industry-focused-area/agriculture/2011-agri-weekly-newsletters.html

32. Breedplan and LRF calendar

2011 Oct 19 - 21 Stockman School Aldam 20 Breedplan Competition Prize Giving Gala Aldam 21 LRF AGM Aldam Nov 16 HerdMASTER Course Bloemfontein Dec 15 eNUUS Nr. 4 2012 January 26 - 27 Breed Society Office Staff Training Bloemfontein February 24 HerdMASTER course Irene, Pretoria 29 HerdMASTER course Bloemfontein March 1 - 3 RTU accreditation Sparta (Welkom) 13 - 15 Meatproduction school Windhoek/Namibia 16 HerdMASTER course Windhoek/Namibia 31 eNUUS Nr. 5

33. In-a-Nutshell Bits & Pieces, to the point, interesting and especially compiled for eNEWS

It's all about performance recording The 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. It's all about genetic evaluation which provides the capability to benchmark individuals within a breed. It's about choosing above-average animals to produce next-generation animals with superior performance. (Observations at the 2011 Beef Improvement Federation meeting) ______________________________________________________________________ Paul Kruger's Champion bull 'Calbrett Champion', a Holstein bull bred by Paul Kruger, Hanford, Canada, is the first is the first third generation sire in the world to have produced over one million units of semen, following in the footsteps of his sire Startmore Rudolph and his grandsire, Madawaska Aerostar. Champion' produced his one millionth unit of semen at 10 years of age. He is a very complete bull, siring high production, show winners, exceptional health traits, and sought after bull dams. His progeny have received numerous All-Canadian and All-American nominations and awards. 'Champion' semen has been sold to over 30 countries. He has over 30,000 daughters worldwide. 'Champion' is a champion. (From Hostein News) ______________________________________________________________________ Very true words by breed society President Our pedigree and performance data base is one of the most important assets of our association. It is of the utmost importance that this data base be maintained and developed with sincerity, integrity and a definite purpose in mind. (Dr JF Kluyts, Simmentaler/Simbra, South Africa). ______________________________________________________________________ The future? Lab grown meat! At universities in the U.S. and Europe, researchers are working to develop lab-grown meat that looks and tastes like our braaivleis. ABC News reports that in order to make cultured, or in vitro, meat, scientists take the cells from an animal and then let them grow in a plant-based mixture of nutrients. As the cells develop, they attach to a natural scaffold (or biodegradable foundation) to create the muscle tissue that comprises meat -- all without the raising and slaughtering of animals.

"Many are trying to imitate natural meat – it must be the same taste, texture, structure. What I want to say is that we can create better than nature -- not just food, but a 'nutraceutical." (Dr. V Mironov, Medical University of South Carolina.) (Editor note: A nutraceutical is a defined as a food that provides health benefits and can be a fortified food or a dietary supplement) "Meat consumption is going to double in the next 40 years. In my mind, meat consumption is here to stay, and if you want to do that at a higher efficiency than what is currently done by cows and pigs, you have to explore the possibility of doing that in the lab." (Dr. M Post, Maastricht University, Netherlands). "In-vitro meat might not sound so appetizing now, but as people realize how the meat industry violates their fundamental ethics, he said, they'll be willing to accept the cruelty-free, lab-grown option. Hopefully we'll come up with a more appealing way to refer to it than in vitro meat. But once there is a marketing campaign ... it's going to be a no-brainer for people." (B Friedrich, vice president, PETA.) However, I noticed some red lights at this stage. Not enough money for scientists interested in lab-grown meat. One source said that in the U.S., the government and private groups don't want to fund the necessary research. Another problem is that the costs of creating cultured meat are still to high today but, one researcher said, "as with any new technology, the costs will come down as it develops and is more widely used." ______________________________________________________________________ Give attention to hair-shedding Dr. J Cassady, North Carolina State University on a hair-shedding study. "Certainly there are differences in hair-coat type. There are short-haired cattle and there are long-haired cattle. Whether an animal is a short-haired animal or a long-haired animal, they are still going to take on a winter coat, and they are still going to shed that winter coat in the spring. However, there is variation in how quickly those animals shed that winter hair coat and that is the focus of the research that we are doing. Thus far, we have discovered that the later in the year a cow sheds her coat, the lower the adjusted 205-day weight of her calf. By selecting for hair-shedding traits in the Southeast, calf weights could increase." ______________________________________________________________________ Calf shape and calving ease Numerous studies have been conducted on calf measurement* and calving ease and there is good agreement that shape difference exists among calves at birth. But when relationships with calving ease are determined, birth weight is by far the most important factor and essentially all measurements contribute only small and usually insignificant amounts of information. (Dr B Bellows)

*=Head circumference, front cannon bone length, hip width, chest depth, heart girth, shoulder width, calf height and length.

______________________________________________________________________ Bad pictures in your breed journal can cost you plenty I often see photos of stud and sale bulls 'snapped' from the wrong angle, taken on the wrong time of the day and a few other unprofessional techniques. A professional photographer says: "A picture is worth a thousand words… but bad pictures of your cattle can cost you plenty! Many potential customers cannot visit your ranch to view your cattle in person, but when they see your cattle in your sale catalogue or in an advertisement in your breed publication, you want their first impression to be a good one." Here a link to a few tips – what time of the day, background, head position and more. http://cattletoday.com/archive/2004/May/CT327.shtml ______________________________________________________________________ Without research you fall behind Please note SA Dpt. Of Agriculture A R40 million US Dpt. Agriculture Research Initiative Grant to eight land-grant universities and USDA will fund a five-year project to research and develop DNA-based technology for predicting genetic merit for feed efficiency in beef cattle. The goal is to study factors that influence feed efficiency and develop tools for selecting cattle that require less feed while still delivering acceptable levels of performance. The USDA has also awarded a grand of R74 million to a consortium led by the Texas A&M College to conduct studies on BVD and feed efficiency. Another contribution by the USDA will provide R39 million for a project led by the University of Missouri to study feed efficiency in cattle. Researchers working on this project will genotype 8,000 cattle and determine how genetic differences affect feed intake and efficiency.

______________________________________________________________________ And in Canada - R460 mil for genomic research The Canadian Minister of Agriculture:" These investments demonstrate how genomics can be applied for the benefit of Canadians, while creating jobs, strengthening Canada’s reputation as a global leader in science and innovation, and yielding important economic returns for these sectors of the economy." This amount will be used for 16 new 'Genome Canada' applied research projects including a project for improving the national Canadian cattle herd. The scientists are developing genomic selection techniques to boost genetic improvement in cattle. Specifically, they are targeting traits that are difficult to improve through conventional means. Low-cost tests are being developed that will allow an animal's entire genome to be inferred from a relatively small number of genetic markers, giving valuable information about its breeding value at a very early age. This will bring immediate benefits to breeders, enhance product traceability and lay the foundation for the next generation of technologies aimed at environmentally sustainable production. It is estimated that this research will generate benefits in excess of R 2.3 billion over the next ten years. ______________________________________________________________________ What he looks like or a calculation of his genetic merit? Most producers buy bulls the same way they have done for generations. Generally speaking, they will buy the biggest, fattest animal at a sale, and use their experience as third or fourth generation cattlemen or women to visually assess the genetic worth of an animal by what it looks like. While tradition plays its part in keeping the status quo, another factor is that many commercial breeders do not have a strong understanding of how to use Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) to improve profitability. EBVs are calculated from information on the animal’s performance and the performance of its relatives and progeny. This information is used to make a prediction of the genetic worth of an animal. The newer genomic DNA markers are developed from an analysis of the minute differences in the genomic sequences of different animals which may point to genes that impact on a desired trait. This DNA information will also be used to increase the accuracy of EBVs. (W Upton, CRC Beef Specialist) ______________________________________________________________________ Marking stud animals in SA In terms of the Animal Identification Act (Act No. 6 of 2002): - Registered animals are marked according to the relevant Breeders Society. - The Breeders’ Society will prescribe the method of marking (branding or tattooing). - Certificates of registration issued by the Breeders Society must accompany registered animals sold at public auctions. Personal note: Auctions above includes commercial livestock auctions and imply that certificates should be submitted to the breed society for after and not before the sale. ______________________________________________________________________ Innovator or follower breeders Successful registered cattle breeders are often afraid to change. They have done so well doing what they do that they don’t see the logic in going out on a limb and taking a risk. Before long they cease to be innovators and become followers instead of leaders in their field. Unfortunately many cattle breeders feel uncomfortable as innovators. There is great comfort in running with the pack. A breeder who can’t stand out from the competition, who can’t explain why a potential customer should buy cattle from him, rather than the breeder down the road or in the next state, will lose some customers, and fail to gain others. (K Evans). ______________________________________________________________________ Brazil has revolutionised farming The increase in Brazil’s farm production is phenomenal. The total value of the country’s crops rose 365% in the last ten years. It has the world’s largest cattle herd after India’s and increased its beef exports tenfold in a decade, overtaking Australia as the world’s largest exporter. It is also the world’s largest exporter of poultry, orange juice, sugar and ethanol. Brazil has done all this without much government subsidy. (Abridged from The Economist) And now they host the two largest sports events in the world namely the soccer world cup (2014) and Olympics (2016). ______________________________________________________________________ Cattle population Talking about Brazil. The top 11 countries in cattle population (Wikipedia and own research): (1) India, 282mil; (2) Brazil, 187m; (3) China, 140m; (4) USA, 96m; (5) EU-27, 87m; (6) Argentina, 51m; (7) Australia, 29m; (8) Mexico, 26m; (9) Russian Federation 20m; (10) Canada, 14m and (11) South Africa 13.5m. ______________________________________________________________________ Resemblance between a car and EBVs

Genetic prediction is like owning a car. You do not need to know everything that makes the car run but you do need a few key indicators such as how much fuel is left in the tank. Similarly, with genetic evaluation, it is not necessary to know how EBVs are derived (the process gets very mathematical) but you do need to know how these values can be used to make selection decisions. (Beef, New Zealand). ______________________________________________________________________ One of the deadliest diseases eradicated The World Organisation for Animal Health recently recognized that all 198 countries and territories with rinderpest-susceptible animals in the world are free of the disease. ______________________________________________________________________ The world's largest meat producer Brazilian company JBS dominates world beef industry from farm to fork. The founder José Batista Sobrinho started the business at his small farm by slaughtering one or two oxen a day, boned the meat and sold it to the local butcher. Today JBS slaughters 90,000 head of cattle a day, employs 125 000 workers and exports to 150 countries. In terms of slaughtering capacity, they have 10 percent of the total worldwide capacity and in terms of the beef trade, 25 percent of the worldwide trade in beef comes from JBS. (Abridged from Washington Post and Fortune) ______________________________________________________________________ Effect of meat-based nutrients on cancer risk A recent European study tracked 2670 people for incidence of cancer over a period of five years. People with higher blood levels of Vitamin B6 and methionine had less than half the risk of developing lung cancer than those with lower levels. Meat and fish are good sources of both Vitamin B6 and methionine. (Abridged from meatingplace.com) ______________________________________________________________________ Myths about meat "Hormone use in meat production is a health concern." The hormones used in meat production, such as estrogen, are the same as, or synthetic versions of, those occurring naturally in animals. They are a fraction of the natural estrogen content of products such as soybean oil and eggs. Hormones result in greater production efficiency and lower cost to the consumer. "Grass-Fed Beef is Safer." Research has shown no difference between grass-finished, organic, natural, and grain-finished cattle in the intestinal levels of E. coli 0157:H7. This organism is a naturally occurring presence in the gut of cattle; neither production system nor type of diet affects safety of the beef produced.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________ The views expressed by the compiler and his references are not necessarily those of the members and management of the LRF (www.lrf.co.za); BREEDPLAN International (http://breedplan.une.edu.au) and Agricultural Business South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (2002/032134/07) (www.breedplan.co.za). _________________________________________________________________________________________________

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