Angus cattlemen work to include both the cow and the carcass in herd goals, and researchers at Iowa State University have the data to prove that is a valid path.
According to the director of Iowa Beef Center, Dan Loy, “There’s a perception out in the industry that there may be some negative relationships there... They found very few relationships between marbling and reproduction. The one thing they did find was a positive relationship between milk production and marbling...You can select for high quality, for marbling, and the traits that consumers want currently and still have a functional, effective cow herd.”
After Iowa State researchers spent two decades on single-trait selection for marbling, they found all other traits maintaining at the Angus breed average. A key interest led to finding a positive link between fertility traits and marbling or intramuscular fat.
“We’re mostly interested in heifer pregnancy and then calving interval, and then also the stayability... of a cow in the heard, and we did find some small correlation, about 0.2, which means that it explains about 4 percent of the variation in the trait between marbling and heifer pregnancy,” Loy said
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