Commercial bull breeders are increasingly having to venture into the five figure range to fill their orders. Image: Angus Australia

Agents and vendors smile with relief when commercial cattle producers turn up at a sale looking for more than a couple of bulls.

Some buyers roll up every year looking for lines while others are not so regular with their buying patterns dictated by seasons, the number females that need to be joined and the ages in the bull paddock.

Confident commercial bull buyers, cashed up by the good cattle prices, appear to be setting their sights higher and forcing seedstock producers to bid higher for the top end genetics.

It wasnt so long ago commercial buyers could fill their orders in the $5000 to $7000 range but these days many need to venture into the five figure range to fill their orders.

If thats what we have to pay we have to pay it, one commercial bull buyer told Beef Central.

With some big catalogues of bulls coming forward in the next few weeks, especially in the north, Beef Central has looked for examples of commercial producers buying bulls in todays market.

Last weeks Rennylea Angus sale at Culcairn NSW needed more than a couple of multi-bull buyers to clear 148 bulls for an average $9682.

While studs dominated Rennyleas top end (Hugh Munro from Booroomooka took the top two bulls at $38,000 and $36,000 following Booroomookas $2.19 million sale two weeks earlier) commercial producers competed vigorously.

One commercial buyer was David McKillop who manages Yamalla at Greenthorpe in the New South Wales central west for Malcolm Sinclair. This long time Rennylea client took five bulls out of the catalogue at an average $9600 with a top of $11,000.

These bulls arrived at their new home after the district received 50 to 70mm of welcome August rain after a dry June-July. However, a couple of screaming late winter frosts have dented pasture progress.

Yamalla has been buying Rennylea bulls for seven years and are happy with what theyve done in the straight bred Angus herd of 530 cows that will calve down this year.

We look for low birth weight, high growth, eye muscle area and fat depth and weve found that fertility follows, Mr McKillop said. Last year 87pc of the heifers and 98pc of the mature females scanned pregnant.

We dont buy heifer bulls as such, we want good genetic gain in our replacement heifers.

Their pattern has been to sell surplus females to restockers through AuctionsPlus but last year increased demand from beef grinders to supply the Angus brand burger market pushed many of the older cows went that way.

Steers are taken through to a 450kg liveweight average and sold direct to feedlots.

We see the price we have to pay these days for our bulls (close to $10,000) as an indication of where the market is. said Mr McKillop.

Initially, it was pretty easy to improve the herds genetics (from a low base) but these days it is harder and harder to get that important genetic gain he said.

Yamalla also runs a flock of 3000 Merino and first cross ewes joined to Dorset rams for prime lamb production.

Don McCrae of Goondiwindi Qld and Walcha NSW took home seven bulls from Rennylea paying a top $16,500 and an average $13,143. This will bring to 54 the number of bulls introduced to his Bullseye Angus herd over the past five years, most from Rennylea and a few from Te Mania.

Over the past few years Bullseye has registered over 1000 Angus Commercial Register (ACR) non seedstock females to keep an eye on the high performers. McCrae stresses he is not a seedstock producer but purely a commercial producer aiming to generate a superior product.

At the ANC Charolais sale at Gulugaba Qld on August 25, 125 bulls averaged $6148. Demand came from northern breeders looking for a Charolais infusion into their Brahman based northern herds.

While the top priced ANC bull at $37,000 went to a stud (Bauhinia Park) commercial producers then took over.

The Slack-Smith family paid to $17,000 and an average $10,500 for six bulls for their Richmond and Julia Creek based Brahman herds while the Scotts Rosetta Station near Collinsville Qld paid an average of $6136 for 22 bulls to join bull battery servicing 15,000 Brahman influenced cows.

As the bull sales move north the range of bos Indicus genetics increases, vendors and agents will be looking for bulk buyers to put a floor on the market. And the going price could be close to the $10,000 mark or even more for the better bulls.

Read the rest here:
Weekly genetics review: What are commercial producers paying for bulls? - Beef Central

The sequencing of the canine genome along with next generation sequencing technologies like whole exome sequencing have facilitated quicker, easier and more efficient identification of genes and mutations that can cause diseases in dogs. In a study published in Skeletal Muscle researchers have used these technologies to study a form of Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (muscle wasting and weakness in shoulder and hip muscles) in Boston terriers. Here to tell us about the research and what this means for the breed is lead author of the study Melissa L. Cox.

Melissa L. Cox 5 Sep 2017

Dogs live with humans, and have access to medical care nearly as sophisticated as ours. We are also close in other ways: sharing approximately 85% of our genome that is our complete sets of genes any naturally occurring gene mutation that may cause a disease in dogs is likely to cause a similar condition in humans, and vice versa. Dogs can serve as models of human disease; for example, treatments such as gene therapy can be tried in dogs before going into clinical trials in humans, which can benefit both species.

The sequencing of the canine genome greatly increased the speed and efficiency with which genes that cause disease can be detected. It has also facilitated research into the origin of dogs and the search for genes that underlie specific traits in dogs, such as height and skull shape, and many hereditary diseases. Next generation sequencing (NGS), including whole exome sequencing (WES) technologies which allow geneticists to determine the precise order of nucleotides within DNA and RNA molecules much more quickly and cheaply than before and the establishment of publically available databases has also allowed for easier identification of genes and mutations that may cause disease.

LGMDs are a varied group of Mendelian disorders characterized by muscle wasting and weakness in the muscles of the shoulders and hips

Our group made use of these technologies to study a form of Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) in Boston terrier dogs. LGMDs are a varied group of Mendelian disorders diseases caused by single genes that are inherited according to Mendels laws characterized by muscle wasting and weakness in the muscles of the shoulders and hips. Four affected dogs from three unrelated families were identified by their primary veterinarians, and referred for specialized investigation.

Clinical examination and pathology results confirmed that all affected dogs were suffering from LGMD, and immunohistopathological assays, which use antibodies that bind to certain tissues to reveal their presence, suggested a sarcoglycanopathy that is a disease resulting from mutations in one of four genes that code for a certain type of protein, called a sarcoglycan. Sarcoglycanopathies are autosomal recessive, and have severe symptoms similar to Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The group originally looked at four Boston terriers affected by LGMD from three unrelated families.

There are six sarcoglycan proteins, four of which (, , , ) are involved in structural and signal functions in muscle. The absence of the sarcoglycans from the muscle of affected dogs made the genes that code for these proteins our candidate genes, and whole exome sequencing allowed us to investigate them simultaneously.

DNA was available from two of the four dogs, and from several relatives of one of the dogs. Whole exome sequencing was performed on a total of 5 dogs, including the two dogs that had the disease and an obligate carrier a dog that didnt have the disease but which had to carry the gene mutation based on analysis of the family history. In one affected dog (Case 3), we found that two nucleotides the buildings blocks of DNA were deleted in one of the sarcoglycan genes. The dogs obligate carrier parent and one other relative each also had one copy of the deletion.

The other affected dog (Case 1) did not share this mutation, which was very surprising to us, given that they were the same breed. Breed structures limit genetic diversity, because dogs are only bred to other dogs of the same breed. This increases the chance that any two dogs will be related, and that they will carry a mutation that is identical by descent, that is, inherited from a shared ancestor. For this reason, most dogs in a breed with the same disease will share the same gene mutation.

This is also a good reminder to the animal breeding and veterinary community that even within one breed, a disease may be caused by more than one mutation

Further analysis showed that Case 1 had a different deletion in the same gene as Case 3. We hypothesize that the dogs have very similar phenotypes because the same portion of the protein coded by the gene is eliminated in the two different mutations.

We screened 200 more Boston terriers from North America and Europe, as well as a large variety of other breeds, and these mutations were not found outside of these two cases and family members. This is good news for the breed, as it appears that these are private mutations, found only in these two families. Although we have developed genetic tests for these two mutations, it will not be necessary for breeders of Boston terriers to add LGMD testing to their routine genetic screening at this time.

This is also a good reminder to the animal breeding and veterinary community that even within one breed, a disease may be caused by more than one mutation. For this reason, it is best practice for testing laboratories to indicate which specific mutation(s) have been tested when writing reports.

The two mutations were found in the sarcoglycan gene SGCD, which has been classified as Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2F (LGMD2F) (the number 2 denotes that it is an autosomal recessive gene, while F is the gene name). LGMD2F is the least common form of sarcoglycanopathy in humans, so our report of the first large animal model of sarcoglycanopathy may also be of interest to human medicine.

The work also demonstrates the utility of whole exome sequencing to identify mutations in an extremely small number of affected animals. This allows mutations to be identified more quickly than in the past, as it is not necessary to gather samples from large family groups. The early establishment of a genetic testing program to distinguish between normal and unaffected carrier animals can therefore prevent a disease from unintentionally spreading through a breed population.

Excerpt from:
Investigating the genetics behind muscular dystrophy in dogs - BMC Blogs Network (blog)

RURAL REPORTER

Last updated12:12, September 4 2017

LIC

A good looker, and the best performing bull at LIC is Sierra, a kiwicross bull. The 7-year-old bull might have 100,000 daughters in the next few years.

Father's Day was on Sunday, and many families got together,but there wasone super dad who foundit a struggle meeting all his offspring.

Sierra, one of LIC's top bulls, has fathered 1700 daughters (milking dairy cows).

"We expect that he will have 12,000 more daughters entering the national herd this year, and predict a further 100,000 over the next few years," said Simon Worth, LIC's livestock selection manager.

Farmers needed top quality genetics to get their cows producing top quality heifers in New Zealand and internationally.He said LIC owned24 of the top 30 artificial breeding (AB) bulls in the country, including Sierra - its top kiwicross bull.

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"Bulls like Sierra are shaping the future of dairying in New Zealand. Our bulls provide three out of every four cows in the country, contributing $300 million towards the economy each year," said Dave Hale, LIC's national artificial breeding manager.

During the peak dairy cow mating season in spring LIC collectedsemen from its 73 elite bulls seven days a week, at itsNewstead farm near Hamilton.

Up to five million semen straws will be processed between now and Christmas, with the co-op's exclusive long last liquid semen diluent (LIC proprietary technology) enabling one bull ejaculate to average 7000 fresh semen straws for insemination.

Straws are sentfresh to a team of 775 AB technicians all over the country, for insemination into cows as early as that same afternoon. Top AB technicians inseminate up to 10,000 cows a year, or200-300 a day.

On the peak day in spring 120,000 semen straws are dispatched nationally, internationally the co-op exports one million frozen straws worldwide year-round.

"While only seven years old, Sierra is definitely one of our super dad bulls. Without them Kiwis probably wouldn't have their morning lattes," said Hale.

-Stuff

Read more:
Artificial breeding bulls in demand as farmers improve genetics - Stuff.co.nz

September 4, 2017

People with a specific variation in the CLOCK gene have more migraines under financial stress. This work, the first time that the genetics of circadian rhythms has been shown to have an effect on migraine, is presented at the ECNP conference in Paris.

Migraine is a serious and debilitating neurological disease affecting 1 billion people worldwide. Migraine has been estimated to cause a financial cost of around 27 billion every year in the European Union, and $17 billion every year in the USA. In the UK, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 12 men are migraine sufferers.

The background of migraine is highly complex involving a large number of genes and their interaction with environmental effects, and acting via multiple pathways in the central nervous system. Variations of circadian genes (which affect how the body controls and responds to environmental changes -- such as changes in light) have previously been shown to affect mood disorders, so it was thought it would be interesting to see if they were associated with migraine.

The group of researchers from Hungary and the UK checked 999 patients from Budapest and 1350 from Manchester, for two variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms, SNPs) of the CLOCK gene, and how these are associated with migraine. The CLOCK gene has an important role in regulating many rhythmic patterns of the body, including body temperature or level of cortisol, the primary stress hormone. They found that there was no significant direct connection between the gene and migraine, but when they factored in stress (financial stress, measured by a financial questionnaire), they showed that the investigated gene variants increased the odds of having migraine type headaches in those subjects who suffered from financial hardship by around 20%. (odds ratio -- see abstract for details).

The researchers looked at functional single nucleotide polymorphisms within the CLOCK gene that are able to influence how much protein is transcribed from the gene. Because this protein controls the body clock machinery these variants may impair processes that can prevent migraine in the face of stress.

Researcher Daniel Baksa (Semmelweis University, Budapest) said:

"This work does not show what causes migraine -- there is no single cause -- but it does show that both stress and genetics have an effect. In the work presented here, we were able to show that stress -- represented by financial hardship -- led to an increase in migraine in those who have a particular gene variant. What we need to do now is to see if other circadian gene variants in association with different stress factors cause the same effect.

The strength of our study is that we saw the same effect in two independent study groups, in Budapest and Manchester, so we think it is a real effect. The investigated gene variants are present in around 1/3 of the population, so they are common variants with small effect size. Our results shed light on one specific mechanism that may contribute to migraine. What it does mean is that for many people, the stress caused by financial worries can physically affect you. Migraine involves a huge health and financial burden each year, so any steps we can take to help patients understand their condition will be really welcome."

Commenting, Professor Andreas Reif (University Hospital, Frankfurt) said:

"This is a really interesting study on the interaction of genetics with stress in migraine. The studied gene is involved in the circadian system, which has previously been shown to be implicated in mental disorders such as bipolar disorder, which intriguingly is comorbid with migraine. Thus, this study might provide a clue how these diseases might be linked on the genetic level which is interesting as such. But even beyond this, the study demonstrates how an environmental risk factor exerts its effect only in the presence of a given genetic risk factor. This has not been done to a great extent in migraine, making this study an exciting new lead."

Read more here:
Genetics of circadian rhythms found to have effect on migraine - News-Medical.net