Cogent have relaunched their female genomic testing service, PrecisionDNA, adding to the Precision offering of technical development Cogent currently present to their customers. Cogent are at the forefront of advancements in breeding and the female genomic testing highlights the company’s ideals and visions.
PrecisionDNA has gone through a number of improvements since its original launch and now the programme enhances the sexed and beef strategy that Cogent are recommending to their customers, to maximise the value of each pregnancy on farm. By identifying the top genetics in the herd to breed replacement heifers from, high quality sexed semen such as SexedULTRA 4M, can then be used on the top 30% of the herd, with the rest going to beef.
On top of this, the relaunch is an uncomplicated process and has led to lowers costs for the farmer, making it much more affordable to test more animals. The testing is now done in their own lab at ST Genetic Visions in Wisconsin, a benefit Cogent have gained from the acquisition with ST Genetics late last year.
Andrew Holliday, Genetic Product Manager at Cogent comments: “The way we interpret the data is really key to our customers. It is important to be able to utilise and benchmark which animals are best and which animals hit that herd’s specific criteria. It’s important to breed an animal which is right for each herd.” He goes on to discuss the importance of gaining information tailored to each herd “With genomic information we can accurately see which animal will work best for that specific farm, based on their specific milk contract. That’s key. If the farmer is not taking into account if they’ve got a cheese or a milk contract, they are not breeding what they need to make money.”
Customers can simply request a PrecisionDNA genomic testing kit through their Cogent rep. Once received, the customer tags young animals (under 10 months old) they wish to assess the genetic merit of and animals they consider furthering their genetic gain on farm. The tagging process collects a small tissue sample in a procedure similar to ear tagging. The customer then posts the sample back to the Cogent office for processing, the results are then released to the customer after evaluation.