At
the September 2012 Board meeting, the CAA Board of Directors moved to change
the Parentage Verification Policy. Essentially, this change, to become
effective for bull calves born on or after January 1st, 2013, would
require full parentage verification on any calf from which offspring will
eventually be registered in the CAA Herdbook. This enhances to current
policy and practice to require verification to the dam in addition to the sire,
which is already in place.
Based
on input from the membership, the Board voted, on November 23rd, to
postpone implementation of this policy until the membership is better informed and
educated on this development. Please read this communication carefully
and let the Association know if you have any questions. As a member of
the Canadian Angus Association, your thoughts and opinions are very important
to the CAA Board of Directors. It is based on membership feedback that
the Board has postponed the effective date of this policy.
Be
sure to look at the questions and answersstatements and rebuttals for your consideration in hopes to
address some of your own thoughts or those of folks with which you’ve discussed
the new rule. If you have further questions that need to be answered or
statement that should be addressed, please do not hesitate to submit them, and
a reply to all queries will be submitted in the same fashion as received.
The
Board wants to communicate their continued commitment to the execution of this
rule and acknowledge the requirement for additional time in creating awareness
among our CAA membership prior to full implementation. We will continue
to provide full, proper and effective information about this rule, its
rationale for being, and its benefit to the membership from now through the implementation
date
Full
implementation of this rule, based on the three-year running average of
first-time sires from which offspring are registered, ultimately affects 1930
bulls born each year, or less than 1½% of our national registered cow herd
annually, with a determined benefit to over 15% of the average annual
registrations. The Board believes this is a compelling and worthy return-on-investment.
Of
the current registration statistics, just under half of the total annual
registrations are bulls, so roughly 48% or approximately 27,048. Of this
value, 46%, or 12,559 are transferred. Further, of this number, 1930
bulls are transferred annually from one member to another, or likely a breeder
bull or the type of bull for which this rule was created to impact. Of
this value, a four-year running estimate include 20% that are already Parentage
Verified while 80% are Sire Verified only, so 80% of the 1930 bulls will need
to be verified to their dam and said dam requires a SNP analysis. 80% of
1930 bulls results in 1544 dams.
Currently,
active registered cow herd numbers are just over 126,000. With this new
rule in effect, the impact of the rule is that 1544 dams of those 126,000 needs
to be analyzed on an annual basis, which amounts to 1.2%.
We
can verify this number by looking at the total number of bulls from which
progeny are registered for the first time on an annual basis. Looking at
this metric we see that during the period of our running average, 1940 bulls
have offspring registered from them for the first time each year. Again,
based on the rule the Board created, all of these bulls would need to be
parentage verified to their dam and, again, 20% of these are already done
leaving 1552 that need dam confirmation. Coming at the situation from this
different perspective, the numbers are almost equal, fully validating the
metric.
So,
with a full validation in place proving the number of bulls affected on an
annual basis, please understand that we need to analyze the dams of slightly
more than 1500 bulls which, rounded to the nearest whole number, is 1% of the
national cow herd. That is, in the end, the net impact of this new rule
-- just over 1% of the national cow herd
annually that will be subject to testing.
The CAA recognizes that communication from
our office on what this new rule really means has not kept pace with the rate
at which some of our membership has developed questions. We have received
significant questions in the office about this change, almost all of which are
based on limited or incorrect information.
Suggestions and questions received are explained and answered below:
Please collect a hair sample (DNA) on each cow in your
herd for future testing if/when the need arises.
The date of implementation for the revised policy, has been postponed
until your CAA Board meets in February so it seems likely that 2013-born calves
will not be affected. Further, bulls born on or before December 31st,
2012 ARE NOT SUBJECT to this testing requirement because ‘historical’ updating
is not required. Since we understand you have limited idea as to which
bulls will be subject to full parent verification, we suggest you collect a
sample of hair from the tail of every one of your registered females, including
as many as 50 full hair follicles, and clearly labeling (the CAA has envelopes
available for you), or any other form of
suitable sample of genetic material, and storing for safe-keeping in a dry
space. We suggest you collect this hair (or alternate genetic sample)
from your cows to assist with the potential future need to register the
offspring from your bull calves during processing, preg-testing, calving or
especially prior to shipment.
Any of these time frames will allow you to satisfy the potential need of
a bull calf born at your operation from which offspring may be registered
sometime in the future. Your CAA office fully understands the challenge
of this new process but can assure you that the value to you as a sire seller
and buyer is substantial. The pedigree validation provided to everyone
buying an Angus bull is important given the increased role in selection that
each animal’s DNA plays and further enhances the validity of our National
Cattle Evaluation.
In the event you do want to start testing your cow herd to fully
validate the parentage of any or all future offspring, please know that the CAA
has established a $12 per SNP Parentage Test rate from now until March 31st,
2013. We have received Alberta government grant monies that allow for
everyone, no matter what province, to capitalize on this rate. Please contact the CAA office if you have any
questions or want to set up tests.
Please note there is no need based on this new rule for you to parentage
verify your existing cows just to submit their sample for a SNP genetic
analysis so that data is on file for any further offspring that may be subject
to testing in the future. In the words of one of our CAA Directors, “This
rule is about ‘looking ahead’ and not about ‘looking back’.”
The CAA stands behind this objective:
That Sire. That Cow. This Bull… GUARANTEED!
With our messaging, we don’t focus on the
SNP parentage test; we focus on the hair sample. We don’t focus on the
cost; we focus on storing the DNA at home. We focus on a management
practice that will create all-around benefit to the entire Association Herd
Book and its audit-ability.
In the end, this rule change…
Affecting <1 annually="annually" cow="cow" herd="herd" national="national" of="of" span="span" the="the">
Affecting <1 annually="annually" cow="cow" herd="herd" national="national" of="of" span="span" the="the">
… will yield significant results…
Positively impacts >15% of annual registrations…
This is why your Board of Directors
approved the rule. If you have suggestions of further methods to
effectively communicate this rule to our membership, or any more questions
about the rule, please do not hesitate to contact your Canadian Angus
Association.
Posted by Rob Smith
Feedback: cdnangus@cdnangus.ca
