Regional research coordination, north central region

The U. S. beef industry presents unique challenges in developing strategies for genetic improvement of beef cattle because it is made up of distinct, competitive segments, each with multiple profit centers. Genetic improvement is accomplished almost entirely through the efforts of independent breeders and beef cattle breed associations. National Cattle Evaluation (NCE) systems were developed because of efforts of breed associations and resources at specific land grant universities. Breed associations bear all the cost of data collection and pay a significant portion of the costs through contracts with land-grant universities. The National Beef Cattle Evaluation Consortium (NBCEC) has provided new sources of federal funding to assist with NCE efforts since 2001. The mission of NBCEC is to 'develop and implement improved methodologies and technologies for genetic evaluation of beef cattle for the purpose of maximizing the impact genetic programs have on the economic viability, international competitiveness, and sustainability of U.S. beef cattle producers and to provide consumers with affordable and healthy beef products.' The beef industry considers the NCE programs to be very successful as evidenced by the widespread use of genetic information by the registered seedstock and commercial segments of the industry. However, many breed associations are finding it difficult to continue funding NCE despite the growing demand for expanded information from industry stakeholders. Therefore, close coordination among researchers and breed associations is becoming increasingly important. The NCERA-225 has been and will continue to be the best method for achieving the needs of NCE. This cooperation will maximize adoption of innovative applications and technologies and will minimize costs by reducing unnecessary duplication of effort. The following list represents examples of research issues and challenges to be addressed by this committee during the 2012 to 2017 period: 1) Development of genetic predictions for economically relevant traits, particularly those related to production efficiency, animal health and human health via healthfulness of beef products; 2) Greater investment in integrative research that utilizes advancements in bioinformatics and functional genomics to exploit the genetic architecture of economically relevant traits for beef cattle production; 3) Improvements to current NCE methodology and computational strategies that incorporate vast quantities of molecular data from different breeds and countries.