Agricultural News
Shane Bedwell Believes the Modern Day Showring and Genomic Selection Tools Can and Do Intersect in a Positive Way
Tue, 21 Mar 2017 03:44:43 CDT
Shane Bedwell is one of the leading beef cattle show judges in the country- and has sorted through animals at major shows like Denver, Ft. Worth, San Antonio and over the last two years- the market steer show at the Oklahoma Youth Expo. His role as a leader in the seedstock industry is even more impressive as he serves as the Chief Operating Officer and Directror of Breed Improvment for the American Hereford Association.
In talking with Radio Oklaoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays at the recent Oklahoma Youth Expo- he talked about where the purebred business is today- and where it is quickly going, given the dynamic genetic selection tools available to cattle producers these days.
"We're in the business to make as good of cattle as we can." And Bedwell says that means using both EPDs and phenotype for the best end product at the end of the day. In the show ring- Bedwell acknowledges that EPDs are not top of mind compared to what the steers look like on the day of the show- but the genomics are still a factor in show cattle as they are helping guide the general direction of key traits that the cattle industry find desirable.
The rapid adoption of genomic EPDs for the purebred cattle business is helping the reliability of herd bull selection- "at this point, I think the future is bright for that- to use that for a selection tool as we work to measure some of these hard economically relevant traits...I think the DNA and Genomic component will be useful as we build new traits that make cattle more profitable" for the commercial producer that is using the information generated by these rapidly evolving tools.
The first part of the conversation between Bedwell and Hays is the focus of today's Beef Buzz, as heard on great radio stations across the region. It's also a regular audio feature found on this website as well. Click on the LISTEN BAR below for today's show and check out our archives for older Beef Buzz shows covering the gamut of the beef cattle industry today.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI
Top Agricultural News
More Headlines...
