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Doug Steele, Steele Land and Livestock, Anita, Iowa, believes the inside information from the IGENITY® profile is a great way for him to begin improving his herd's genetics more rapidly. Steele runs a 400-head registered Angus herd and sells about 150 bulls and a few females each year. He believes the IGENITY® profile can help him and his customers make genetic progress faster to produce a more consistent product.
"DNA technology gives me an unbiased look at the cattle's genetics," Steele says. "The data are black and white and can tell me about traits like stayability and docility that I cannot get with traditional selection tools."
This is why he gained inside information from the IGENITY profile on his entire calf crop for the second year, and is providing it on cattle in his March production sale. Steele mainly uses IGENITY to help him make more confident mating decisions, and to help his customers make better bull selection decisions.
"Before we can make genetic progress, we have to set a base line for our herd," he says. "Once we know what our herd's strengths and weaknesses are, we can begin to make genetic progress. We also can use the information from IGENITY to help our customers improve their genetics."
Steele says his customers need to know where their genetics are before they can make progress. Then he helps them apply that information when they seek out a sire.
"We are working with some customers to gather data on their cattle so we can know which sire will best fit their operation," he says.
Steele says the IGENITY profile is a powerful tool for both he and his customers. And, he advises producers looking to include the IGENITY profile into their production sale start as early as possible.
"This year, we collected the samples much earlier than before so we can get the data back and get it in front of our customers," he says.
To make it easier for customers, Steele will be posting the scores from IGENITY on his Web site prior to his bull sale and providing the information in the sale catalog.
"The focus of our breeding program is to provide Angus cattle that have superior production traits in a useful and attractive package," Steele says. "By using the IGENITY profile to help make better decisions in our mating program we can reach our goals faster and help our customers produce a superior end product at the same time."
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