Improving female fertility and calf survival in the UK beef industry

Fertile suckler beef cows and low calf mortality are essential for profitable beef production systems. To

improve cow fertility and calf survival national data will be used to develop genomic breeding values for

fertility and survival. Genomic selection is a novel breeding tool which increases the rate of genetic

improvement for traits that have traditionally been difficult to improve, like fertility and survival. As a

result the overall efficiency of the UK beef industry can be improved as cows will be more fertile and

produce more calves in their lifetime and more calves will survive. This will increase production, but just

as important do it in a sustainable way that ultimately will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions per kg

beef produced. This project is innovative as beef genomics is still in its infancy and there are currently no

breeding tools available for the genetic improvement of survival.