Neogen Igenity Genomic Testing for Cattle
A DNA test that ranks your own cattle on the traits you are selecting for, so replacement and breeding decisions are made on data rather than on how an animal looks in the ring.
Ranking Your Own Stock
A pedigree index tells you about a bull’s relatives. A genomic profile tells you about the animal in front of you. For a commercial herd choosing which heifers to keep, that is the more useful of the two, because the decision is a ranking within your own group rather than a comparison against a national average.
Igenity is Neogen’s profile range for commercial beef and dairy. A sample goes off, and what comes back is a score per trait for each animal, which you can sort on.
Beef
Igenity Beef is the commercial suckler profile, covering maternal traits such as calving ease and birth weight, performance traits such as average daily gain and residual feed intake, and carcass traits such as marbling and tenderness. Igenity Feeder is the terminal version for cattle going for finishing. Igenity Envigor measures heterosis in crossbred cattle, which is the one worth asking about if you are running a crossbreeding programme and want to know whether it is actually delivering. Igenity BeefxDairy covers beef-sired calves out of the dairy herd and returns breed percentages alongside the scores.
Dairy
Igenity Select is the full-power profile; Igenity Essential carries the core traits at a lower cost; Igenity Basic and Basic Plus are for crossbred dairy cattle. Igenity Merit ranks animals on the industry indexes most people already use. The results come with the Igenity Dashboard for sorting and visualising them.
Test the heifers you are undecided about. Genomic testing earns its keep in the middle of the group, not at the ends — you already know which two you are keeping and which two are going. Talk to your representative about which profile fits what you are actually selecting for before you sample anything.
Genomic Testing Questions
What is genomic testing in cattle used for?
Ranking your own animals on the traits you are selecting for — replacement heifer selection, breeding decisions and, for terminal stock, growth and carcass potential. It is a ranking within your group rather than a comparison against a national average.
Which Igenity profile do I need?
For commercial suckler herds, Igenity Beef; for cattle going for finishing, Igenity Feeder; for crossbred herds wanting to measure heterosis, Igenity Envigor; for beef-sired calves out of the dairy herd, Igenity BeefxDairy. On the dairy side, Igenity Select is the full profile, Essential the core one, Basic and Basic Plus for crossbreds and Merit for index ranking.
Is genomic testing worth it for a commercial herd?
It is most useful where you are genuinely undecided — the middle of a group of replacement heifers. Ask your representative to go through which traits you are actually selecting for before sampling.
Ask at any of the four stores — Ayr, Kinross, Lanark & Stirling — or ring 01786 474 481. There is a qualified SQP in every store.
Get your rep out