Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

WERA1: Coordinating Beef Cattle Breeding Research and Education Programs for the Western States

2022 Annual Meeting Minutes

The annual meeting was called to order by host Dr. Lauren Hanna at 9:02 AM MT on Thursday, June 23, 2022. The meeting was hosted at North Dakota State University (NDSU) Dickinson Research Extension Center (DREC) located in Dickinson, ND with an option for virtual attendance through Zoom.

Attendees included Drs. Chris Davies – Utah State University and Administrative Advisor, Mark Enns – Colorado State University, Matthew Garcia – Utah State University, Benton Glaze – University of Idaho, Michael Gonda – South Dakota State University, Lauren Hanna – North Dakota State University, Andrew Hess – University of Nevada – Reno, Samuel Olorunkoya – North Dakota State University, Jennifer Thomson – Montana State University, and Angelica Van Goor, USDA NIFA Representative. Brief introductions were made amongst committee members.

Dr. Chris Davies, Administrative Advisor, reminded members that the committee is entering the last year of the current project cycle and any new participants should complete an Appendix E to be formal participants. A renewal project proposal will be due by January 15, 2023. The new project will officially start in October 2023 once approved. This project renewal proposal should not be the exactly the same as the current project, but can update and/or build off of it. Dr. Davies indicated it was positive to have the committee meeting regularly again and with an in-person option. The committee discussed impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and loss of long-time members on project objectives. The project renewal was added to the business meeting agenda. Lastly, Dr. Davies and the group discussed other ways of identifying more participants, such as breed association representatives, reaching out to institutions in surrounding states such as Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University, international options such as Alberta or other provinces in Canada, and using recently funded proposals to identify individuals with similar interests.

Dr. Angelica Van Goor, NIFA Representative, provided an update on NIFA activities and changes, including links on upcoming webinars and how to volunteer to serve on peer-review panels. The NIFA Representatives are changing how they attend meetings, where they are required to attend the first and last year of a project’s annual meeting, but will need to join via virtual means for other years due to travel budgets. She discussed staffing updates and reviewed the USDA FY 2022 to 2026 Strategic Plan. She indicated these would be relevant areas to update, tie into, or add in the upcoming renewal proposal. Lastly, she went over the AFRI Foundational and Applied Science RFA for FY 2022 to 2023 updates.        

The meeting then transitioned to station reports by Drs. Michael Gonda, Jennifer Thomson, Mark Enns, and Lauren Hanna. New attendees Drs. Andrew Hess, Benton Glaze, and Matthew Garcia also provided discussion on their current efforts related to the committee. Lastly, Dr. Davies provided a presentation on knock-out sheep efforts being investigated related to reproductive performance.

The business meeting was called to order at 2:40 PM MT by Dr. Lauren Hanna. Dr. Hanna reminded the group that the current project still has one more meeting in 2023, so new attendees should complete their Appendix E. The group discussed possible meeting locations for the 2023 and 2024 meetings. Dr. Jennifer Thomson nominated Dr. Michael Gonda, South Dakota State University, to host the 2023 meeting. Dr. Gonda accepted the nomination and the group was in favor. He indicated it could likely be held at the SDSU Western Regional Agricultural Center near Rapid City, SD. Dr. Benton Glaze indicated that University of Idaho has interest in hosting a meeting in the near future. Dr. Hanna suggested that University of Idaho could be listed as a possible location for 2024 meeting, which would need to be confirmed in the 2023 meeting. The group was in favor.

Dr. Hanna will be in charge of the meeting report for the 2022 meeting and will email attendees with documents to share as well as requesting items to finalize the report. The committee then discussed writing the project renewal proposal, which included updating objectives to also reflect the use of other ruminant meat livestock to guide decisions in beef cattle breeding efforts. Dr. Hanna volunteered to lead the re-write efforts and requested assistance from other members present. The group agreed. Dr. Hanna plans to get the bulk of that re-write done before late August due to teaching efforts, where Dr. Mark Enns agreed to help by finalizing the re-write.

The group discussed resources for education in animal breeding and genetics, especially beef cattle, since many involved are island institutions for livestock or animal geneticists. Dr. Thomson indicated that it may be worth pursing a higher education challenge grant to build a set of education tools that are easily accessible in the event that sabbaticals or other reasons leave gaps in education needs.

The business meeting adjourned at 3:10 PM MT. In-person attendees were given a tour of the NDSU DREC main station tour following the business meeting. A tour at the NDSU DREC Ranch near Manning, ND was given to in-person attendees on Friday, June 24, 2022 in which discussion was held on two beef cattle projects – one lead by Dr. Doug Landblom, Associate REC Specialist, and the other lead by Dr. Lauren Hanna.

It should be noted that the committee met only 7 months after the 2021 meeting in an attempt to schedule annual meetings in similar timeframe as pre-pandemic meetings. This resulted in less to report overall.

Objective 1: Develop, disseminate, and maintain resources for understanding genetics of beef cattle; specifically, topics of adaptability and retained heterosis.

• Colorado State University shared a copy of the Beef Improvement Federation 2022 presentation summary on genetic by environment interactions as well as a PDF copy of the WCC-1 May 1999 Publication (TB-99-1) on crossbreeding beef cattle for western range environments with the group.
• Montana State University open a shared Google Drive folder for participants to share teaching material and to maintain resources in the event these were needed in the future. In addition, MSU has developed and maintained information on biomarker identification related to BRD susceptibility, RFI, and temperament in cattle. They are investigating transcriptomic and metabolic regulation of muscle and adipose tissue in fattening beef cattle related to more consistent and reliable estimation of USDA carcass quality grade. They have developed SNP panels for use in livestock species to study population health and genetics in related wild species.
• University of Wyoming has courses that cover both retained heterosis and adaptability to junior, senior, and graduate students. Resources are made available to all students in Principles of Animal Breeding, Advanced Sheep Production, and Advanced Beef Production. Resources include, but are not limited to, worksheets, lecture notes, and Beef Improvement Federation resources. Beef cattle genetics is also discussed using scientific literature to graduate students using a seminar format. Collaborations with Zoetis are also being built for classroom learning opportunities.
• All participants maintain and update curriculum for teaching animal breeding and genetic concepts at their institution.

Objective 2: Integrate quantitative and molecular research tools that contribute to the understanding of genetic prediction procedures and genetic associations among economically important traits and their indicators.

• Colorado State University has research focused on high altitude disease and ties to genetic by environment interactions. This includes accumulating needed data at different environment locations and altitudes.
• North Dakota State University has research focused on temperament and longevity in crossbred cattle. This includes involving genomic data, advanced genome-wide and genomic-prediction methodologies to understand project outcomes.
• South Dakota State University has research focus climate change impacts on cattle water availability. Experiments aim to (1) correlate water requirements of beef calves and yearlings at different ages, body weights, feed intakes, and climatic factors, and (2) identify genes associated with thirst in beef calves. These studies are accumulating needed data on water intake in growing calves with the intent of relating them to molecular attributes such as RNA.
• Montana State University has recent publications and presentations on utilizing systems biology to improve prediction and consistency of USDA carcass quality grades and on the use of biomarkers and intermediate phenotypes to improve selection and genetic improvement. They received a subaward on USDA/NIFA project on longevity in beef cattle with NDSU. They have a funded USDA/NIFA project on transcriptomics and metabolomic in relation to beef carcass quality.
• University of Wyoming has three main areas of research underway: high altitude disease, reproductive efficiency, and feed efficiency. Each research area is integrating molecular research techniques to investigate opportunities for indirect selection for improvements in resistance to high altitude disease, reproductive and/or feed efficiency. They are investigating cytokine/chemokine concentrations that may be associated with high altitude disease in feedlot cattle in hopes of identifying key immune profiles that may associate with cattle of higher risk to develop high altitude disease as a way to couple with selection on pulmonary arterial pressure and decrease the negative impacts that high altitude disease can have on production both at the cow-calf and feedlot sector. In reproductive and feed efficiency efforts we continue to look for ways to utilize the microbiome of both the reproductive tract and the rumen as potential for indirect selection or development of targeted nutrition intervention. These three areas of research are economically relevant to beef cattle producers not only in the western U.S. but the industry as a whole.

Objective 3: Exchange information, discuss research results, plan new research, examine new developments, discuss future problems, plan cooperative research and share ideas for interdisciplinary involvement in beef cattle breeding in the Western U.S.

• The annual meeting was held with both in-person and virtual attendance option. It was the first in-person meeting attempt since the 2019 meeting due to COVID-19 pandemic. Four of 5 registered participants were present in-person at this meeting.
• The annual meeting had 3 new attendees from institutions not currently participating, which shared information about their programs relevant to the committee’s purpose, discussed avenues to have them involved in future meetings and collaborative efforts, as well as ways to increase outreach to additional individuals that may participate in the committee.
• The annual meeting allowed for each individual present to discuss current research efforts and share results relevant to the committee’s purpose.

Refereed Papers:

Cunningham-Hollinger, H. C., Z. T. L. Gray, K. W. Christensen, W. J. Means, S. Lake, S. I. Paisley, K. M. Cammack, and A. M. Meyer. 2022. The effect of feed efficiency classification on visceral organ mass in finishing steers. Canadian Journal of Animal Science. Accepted Manuscript. DOI: 10.1139/CJAS-2022-0015

Flesch, E., T. Graves, J. Thomson, K. Proffitt, and R. Garrott. 2022. Average kinship within bighorn sheep populations is associated with connectivity, augmentation, and bottlenecks. Ecosphere. 13(3): e3972. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3972

Hummel, G. L., K. Austin, and H. C. Cunningham-Hollinger. 2022. Comparing the maternal-fetal microbiome of humans and cattle: a translational assessment of the reproductive, placental, and fetal gut microbiomes. Biology of Reproduction. 107(2): 371-381. DOI:10.1093/biolre/ioac067

Lindholm-Perry, A. K., A. M. Meyer, R. J. Kern-Lunbery, H. C. Cunningham-Hollinger, T. H. Funk, and B. N. Keel. 2022. Genes Involved in Feed Efficiency Identified in a Meta-Analysis of Rumen Tissue from Two Populations of Beef Steers. Animals. 12(2): 1514. DOI:10.3390/ani12121514

Schumacher, M., H. DelCurto-Wyffels, J. Thomson, and J. Boles. 2022. Fat Deposition and Fat Effects on Meat Quality – A Review. Animals. 12(12): 1550. DOI: 10.3390/ani12121550

Thomson, J. M. 2022. Sustainability of Wild Populations: A Conservation Genetics Perspective. In: Meyers R.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology. Springer, New York, NY. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4939-2493-6_1125-1

Zhai, C., L. C. Li Puma, A. J. Chicco, A. Omar, R. J. Delmore, I. Geornaras, S. E. Speidel, T. N. Holt, M. G. Thomas, R. M. Enns, and M. N. Nair. 2022. Pulmonary arterial pressure in fattened Angus steers at moderate altitude influences early postmortem mitochondria functionality and meat color during retail display. Journal of Animal Science. 100(2): skac002. DOI: 10.1093/jas/skac002

Abstracts:

Markel, C. D., M. A. Shults, C. R. Ritchie, C. E. Newman, C. D. Bedke, B. D. Mills, T. N. Holt, S. L. Lake, H. C. Cunningham-Hollinger, and C. L. Gifford. 2022. Evaluation of finishing performance and carcass characteristics of beef heifers with variable degrees of heart failure risk and differing reproductive tract type. Under Review. WSASAS Abstract.

Anas, M., B. Zhao, N. Bhowmik, K. A. Ringwall, C. R. Dahlen, K. C. Swanson, and L. L. Hulsman Hanna. 2022. 42 Genome-wide association study of ovary characteristics in admixed beef heifers through comparative Bayesian approaches. Journal of Animal Science. 100(Supplement_2): 12-13. DOI: 10.1093/jas/skac064.019

Presentations:

Enns, R. M. 2022. Targeting bull selection to match your management, environment and market. 54^th Annual Beef Improvement Federation Research Symposium and Convention, Las Cruces, NM.