Three maternal breeding values added to improve beef cattle selection

Maternal EBVs are indicators of a cow’s genetic potential and can be used by breeders to assess the animal’s merit for certain traits, such as gestation length, calving ease or calf weight at birth.

EBVs are generated by Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and incorporate data from processors, breed societies and the British Cattle Movement Service (BCMS).

So far, the NBE database has provided a genetic evaluation for commercial carcase traits in beef cattle to help levy payers make better breeding decisions. In addition, the AHDB now publishes EBVs for three additional maternal traits, namely age at first calving, productive lifespan, and calf survival.

AHDB’s Maternal Matters campaign has been running for the past year to emphasise the importance of maternal performance in boosting efficiency and profitability in the suckler herd. Through improving herd genetics, these new EBVs will have a marked impact on suckler herd performance and they also link in with key maternal performance indicators (KPIs).

The age at first calving EBV allows breeders to select for cows that are more likely to produce their first calf at a younger age. This can lower costs and increase the number of calves the cow delivers over her lifetime, provided management and nutrition are optimal.

The productive lifespan EBV enables selection for cows that are able to remain in the breeding herd for longer. This EBV is linked to the KPI for herd replacement rate and can be used to increase the number of years the cow spends breeding.

The calf survival EBV allows breeders to select for cows whose progeny is more likely to survive into adulthood. This EBV can be used to lower calf mortality rates and is linked to the KPI for calves weaned, as a percentage of females put to the bull.

Dr Alex Brown, senior beef breeding and genetics manager at AHDB, has been leading the research project underpinning the launch of the new maternal EBVs. She commented:

“The new maternal breed evaluations come at a pivotal time for the industry when most producers are looking at ways to become more efficient with their breeding policies to maximise outputs.”

“We are grateful for continuing support from SRUC and our other data providers, as this allows us to leverage extra value for producers from already routine data collection on births, deaths, and pedigrees.”

Ms Brown highlighted the importance of pedigree information in the genetic evaluation process as it contains information regarding the genetic link between animals. She urged breeders to record all known sires in their calves’ pedigree when registering the animals with the BCMS.

“Increasing the amount of sire recording on the passport remains the best way to increase the breadth and accuracy of the National Beef Evaluations and drive genetic progress in our industry,” Ms Brown concluded.

For further information, visit: https://ahdb.org.uk/knowledge-library/national-beef-evaluations