Zoetis, Angus Genetics, Inc. (AGI) and Certified Angus Beef (CAB) have updates to GeneMax® Advantage™, including upgraded marker effects, up-to-date economic assumptions, an expanded reference population for comparing animals and individual trait reporting.

“What we’ve created here is a continuously updated genetic game plan for commercial users of Angus genetics,” said Kent Andersen, Director of Genetic Technical Services, U.S. Cattle-Equine, with Zoetis. “We’ve taken the very latest of what we’ve learned from the world’s largest and more comprehensive genomic calibration and further enhanced GeneMax Advantage. This tool is designed to help with replacement heifer keep/cull decisions, as well as breeding and marketing decisions for commercial cow-calf operations.”

“During tough economic times, we try to give commercial users of Angus genetics every advantage,” said Dan Moser, President, AGI. “GeneMax Advantage is another tool that provides advantages in selection for production efficiency and end-product quality.”

In response to customer requests, GeneMax Advantage now includes individual trait reporting – and all of these enhancements are applicable to both future as well as historically tested animals. Consistent with previous GeneMax offerings, the refreshed genomic test is for use in commercial Angus replacement females (75 percent or greater).

“We are going to begin reporting genetic predictions for many of the individual traits that are included in the indexes—calving ease maternal, weaning weight, heifer pregnancy, milk and mature weight from the Cow Advantage Index,” said Andersen. “We’re also going to report predictions for post-weaning gain, carcass weight, marbling, ribeye and fat from the Feeder Advantage Index. Similar to the indexes, genetic predictions for individual traits are expressed on a 1 to 100 scale, where scores of 50 represent the average genetic merit of tested commercial Angus females in the reference population. Generally, with the exceptions of milk and cow weight, higher scores are more desirable”.