Understanding your customer’s needs, the power of data and the need for continuous innovation is key to the success of beef and dairy producers. Lorna Marshall, Select Sires vice president of beef genetics, emphasizes the critical role of technology, data and strategic breeding in creating value in the industry today.
Marshall was the featured guest in “The Future of Beef Show” podcast Episode 13.
Her perspective highlights the beef industry’s evolution from traditional breeding methods to a more sophisticated, technology-driven approach.
Marshall’s journey in the artificial insemination (AI) industry spans decades. She explains the AI industry has seen significant consolidation during her career — from 15 cooperatives to now three to four major organizations. She says Select Sires remains the only cooperative AI organization in the U.S.
“Whatever I see happen in the dairy world, beef is going to follow it in five to seven years,” she explains.
Key takeaways from the podcast include:
1. Beef-on-Dairy Evolution: The beef on dairy market has transformed dramatically since 2018, creating more valuable cattle by crossing beef bulls with dairy cows.
She says AI companies are focusing on terminal traits for beef-on-dairy, creating bulls specifically designed for producing high-value feeder cattle.
The biggest challenge in the beef-on-dairy space is semen fertility. Marshall acknowledges male-sexed semen would be a good option for beef-on-dairy, but the conception level is not where it needs to be today.
“Fertility is three times more important than any other trait,” Marshall explains about working with dairy producers. “Sexed semen, while we have really improved that product a lot, it still does not have the same level of fertility and conception rate.”
She adds management and cow fertility play a role in the success of sexed semen conception so it is something that can be considered herd by herd, not something implemented across the entire dairy population.
“If I could figure out how to improve bull fertility,” she says. “That would be the No. 1 thing I could do to improve business for Select Sires, or really, any AI organization.”
Fertility is not highly heritable, and there can easily be a 20-percentage-point difference between high and low bulls.
“The thing I love most about beef-on-dairy is, I love data, and I, finally, for the first time in my career, have data to play with,” Marshall says.
2. Genomic Testing: There’s a growing potential for genomic testing in beef cattle, similar to what’s been done in the dairy industry, to improve genetic selection and herd performance.
“If I was a commercial beef producer, I’d be wanting to test my commercial females and figure out who are really the elite ones,” she explains. “And then let’s go build our replacement heifers out of those.”
3. Breed and Genetic Trends: Genetic selection is becoming increasingly precise and data driven. The future of beef genetics lies in comprehensive trait measurement and genomic understanding.
She also emphasizes the beef industry’s evolution from single-trait selection to a more comprehensive strategy.
“There is always a pendulum changing or swinging,” Marshall says. “You’re always going to have people that are more willing to go out on those pendulums farther than others. And that’s what I love about our commercial industry, they always kind of keep the seedstock industry a little bit grounded.”
She explains at Select Sires they strive to provide the customer what they really want.
“We need some of those extremes, honestly, to kind of move the industry forward in different areas,” she says. “Look what we’ve done on traits like marbling. We’ve totally changed the beef demand dynamic, because we’ve created a more palatable product that our consumers really like.”
Comparing the seedstock and commercial beef industries, she says seedstock producers generally select for extreme in traits trying to be breed leading.
“Our commercial customers have almost always selected more for balance,” she summarizes. “But really the secret sauce to getting bulls that are going to sell lots of semen would combine phenotype and genotype, and then their pedigree is always important.”
Marshall predicts the industry will continue to develop new traits that we don’t measure today.
“We may get rid of some of the traits that we have and measure things in a much more profitable way, like age to harvest,” she adds.
She also emphasizes the need for bulls that will produce the next generation of the nation’s cow herd.
“We better have some maternal bulls in our lineup, because beef producers are ready to start rebuilding the cow herd,” Marshall says.
4. Labor Barrier for AI : The labor needed for synchronization is a critical challenge in AI adoption.
Marshall identifies labor as the primary barrier to increasing AI adoption.
“Until we figure out how to synchronize that cow with less labor, it’s going to be really hard to move the needle in a significant way,” she says.
Marshall summarizes the future of the beef industry relies on these four strategies:
- - Embracing technological innovation
- - Maintaining genetic diversity
- - Focusing on commercial producer needs
- - Continuous learning and adaptation
Check out the podcast to learn more about how Marshall believes how data, genetics and innovation is shaping the future of beef cattle production.
