{"id":20058,"date":"2026-07-03T17:00:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/?p=20058"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T23:00:03","slug":"100-years-of-performance-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brahmanjournal.com\/cattle\/100-years-of-performance-testing","title":{"rendered":"100 Years of Performance Testing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joe C. Paschal, Professor Emeritus and Livestock Specialist<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

My presentation at the UF Beef Cattle Short Course was \u201c75 Years of Animal Breeding Research \u2013 What Have We Learned?\u201d The topic made me realize I am at that age where folks think I have lived through events they have only heard about, much less experienced. In animal breeding, they could be right.<\/p>\n

I began by thinking about the major events of each decade, including a few decades before. The ABBA was begun in 1924 but was preceded by the Devon, Shorthorn, Hereford and Angus associations by almost 50 years. There were a lot of dairy and dairy-beef crosses in the early 1900s. USDA, through state Extension programs, began a campaign to \u201cStamp Out the Scrub Cow\u201d using purebred bulls. County agents were required to report purebred bull use in their counties. This grading up to purebred and loss of hybrid vigor led to a \u201crediscovery\u201d of planned crossbreeding programs.<\/p>\n

In South Texas in 1930, Tom Lasater began experimenting in earnest with Brahman, Hereford and Shorthorn cattle to create his Beefmaster breed. Before Lasater, Robert Kleberg at King Ranch used crosses of Brahman and Shorthorn (likely milking Shorthorn) to create Santa Gertrudis. In 1932, the Louisiana Experiment Station in New Iberia was experimenting with Brahman-Angus crosses that later led to the development of Brangus.
\nIn 1943, L. N. Hazel, a graduate student under Jay L. Lush at Iowa State, developed selection index theory as his thesis project. Artificial insemination was in its infancy, but sire parentage was proven through blood typing of sires and their calves. Performance testing of bulls began. In 1946, the last major importation of Bos indicus genetics from Mexico crossed into the U.S., and Brangus breeders formed a breed association. In 1947, Alto Adams of Florida introduced the Braford breed formed from Brahman and Hereford crosses.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s, refinement was sought by breeders, feeders and packers in the size of cattle, and breeders selected for more compact cattle, unknowingly increasing the recessive gene frequency for dwarfism. Progeny testing for genetic defects was long and expensive. Beef Cattle Improvement Associations were formed to assist producers in breeding better cattle, and in 1954, the helical structure of human DNA was determined by Watson and Crick, although their work was based on that of Rosalind Franklin. The Red Angus Association of America was founded, the first to require a performance record (weaning weight) for registration. In 1955, Performance Registry International was founded in Texas, the first national organization focused on beef cattle performance testing through the Certified and Golden Certified Meat Sire Program.<\/p>\n

The 1960s saw the influx of European breeds beginning with the Charolais. Charolais had been in the U.S. for many years, having come in through Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley and Southwest Texas. Interestingly, the Charbray (crosses between Charolais and Brahman) was a very popular intermediate step in grading up to Charolais. Other breeds from Europe included Simmental, Limousin and Gelbvieh. These breeds increased mature size and, in some cases, increased birth weights and calving difficulty that continued into the 1970s. In addition, an increase in double muscling and arthrogryposis was observed and traced back to some imported Charolais sires. The U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Nebraska, opened in 1964. In 1968, N. M. Kieffer and T. C. Cartwright reported on the shape of the Bos indicus Y chromosome. Also in 1968, the Beef Improvement Federation was created to coordinate and later standardize efforts to improve beef cattle genetics nationally.<\/p>\n

The 1970s began with the development of national sire evaluation programs to calculate estimated breeding values for sires. The American Simmental Association led the way but used data from its breed\u2019s within-herd reporting system, similar to the Brahman Herd Improvement Program (begun in 1974), instead of special tests costing tens of thousands of dollars per sire tested. These programs became national cattle evaluations as statistical models were developed to include females as well as bulls without progeny. By 1980, most breed association evaluations used expected progeny differences instead of estimated breeding values because they more accurately estimated the genetic performance of an animal. Embryo transfer became widely used. Certified Angus Beef (CAB) was founded in 1978.<\/p>\n

The 1980s saw the development of new composites using mostly Bos taurus breeds designed to create and retain hybrid vigor in future generations. Some later included Brahman or other tropically adapted breeds for heat tolerance. The first cattle clones appeared, and the \u201clarge offspring syndrome\u201d seen in ET calves out of surrogate dams was investigated.<\/p>\n

The \u201cWar on Fat\u201d continued through the 1980s as a counter to false claims that beef caused heart disease. Cattle were already muscular and became more so, and quality grade declined. In response, the old USDA Good grade became USDA Select in 1987, and fat was trimmed to one-quarter inch in the retail case. Cattle DNA was sequenced in bits and pieces. Some markers, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), would later be used to determine relationships and levels of genetic performance.
\nThe 1990s saw one breed on the way to dominating the market, while toward the end of the decade the average percentage of Choice cattle began to climb. The breeds with the largest mature size were Simmental, Charolais and Angus. Genomics became the buzzword, and the mapping and sequencing of the bovine genome were tied primarily to marbling and tenderness. GeneSTAR by Bovigen and Igenity by Merial were launched. Selection indexes were finally being adopted by breed associations. SNPs were used for parentage determination.<\/p>\n

The new century brought a complete sequence map of the human genome in 2003 and the cattle genome in 2009. Genomic tests were used to improve genetic relationships and enhance the accuracy of EPD calculations. The value of hybrid vigor was rediscovered by nearly all breeds, often ignoring the value of the breed itself (except in Angus). Gene editing was in its infancy, and adding or deleting major genes was not far off (horns). A major effort was underway to customize selection indexes. In the future, the study of the genome would continue to focus on its individual parts rather than the animal as a whole.
\nThe study of the genome continues to evolve to include the microorganisms that digest nutrients and how genes create the foundational building blocks for proteins, fats and enzymes, making animals more efficient and profitable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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