Genomic prediction of beef tenderness in Canadian beef cattle

Abstract Text: Beef tenderness remains a concern for the beef industry in North America.  Genomic predictions provide an avenue for selection and a means to sort cattle for different markets.  Genomic predictions for tenderness have been available to the industry for some time.  A Canadian multi-breed population with 2891 animals with Axiom Genome-Wide BOS 1 Array genotypes and phenotypes for longissimus dorsi7-day post-mortem (LM7D) shearforce was used to develop genomic breeding value estimates (GEBV) with GBLUP.  The correlation between GEBV and adjusted LM7D was estimated in 4 validation groups, with estimates ranging from 0.10 to 0.50 with the estimate increasing with increasing relationship between validation and training groups and the prediction shown to reduce tough steaks when used to remove cattle from production. Low prediction accuracy in unrelated crossbreds will limit practical application of the developed prediction to value chains with a captive cattle supply.

Keywords: Meat Quality, Genetic Improvement, Shearforce