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DNA MATTERS Continued from page 8

CALENDAR OF EVENTS provides enough genetic differentiation to bet- ter determine parentage. Our conversion was completed this year, meaning all of the working sires and fullblood dams have been SNP’d. There are a few per- centage dams that still need to be SNP’d, and we are working with the individual ranches to get those up to date. With the completion of this conversion, we can begin using the SNP plat- form to gather high-density DNA profiles that will measure more than 100,000 genetic mark- ers. Soon, we will be able to correlate specific genes and/or groups of genes to phenotypic traits. This information will one day be helpful in determining which dam/sire lines are better for carcass traits or calving ease or daily gain. All will help Akaushi compete in an industry that will utilize technology and data more than ever. But we will save that for a future article. Keep those samples coming. As of mid-Sep- tember, we have processed more than 17,000 samples. We are having a banner year as this is almost 2,000 samples more than previ- ous years! Our participating membership has grown to more than 160 members submitting DNA samples. Our average turnaround time is still about four weeks. GeneSeek has notified us that this is their busy season, so if you are planning to submit samples, please get them in as soon as possible in order to minimize any impact of longer processing times. PT DEC. 4-6 California Cattlemen’s Association/CattleWomen’s Annual Convention, Reno, Nev. DEC. 11-13 New Mexico Cattle Growers Association Joint Stockmen’s Conference, Albuquerque, N.M. DEC. 31 Membership Renewal Invoices Mailed 2020 JAN. 31 Membership Renewals due FEB. 3 Online Registration Opens for 9th Annual American Akaushi Association Convention FEB. 3 Preliminary Spring WHR Inventory Mailed FEB. 5-7 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Tradeshow, San Antonio, Texas JUNE 5-7 American Akaushi Association Annual Convention, Horseshoe Bay Resort, Horseshoe Bay, Texas

Tag TypiFix™ Tissue tags as a collection meth- od in August 2013. Being able to collect a DNA sample and tag a calf was revolutionary for the industry. Our bigger commercial operations preferred this method for that reason. Since then, this collection method has become very popular across the board because members are able to customize their tag IDs, and the DNA sample barcode correlates to the tag, making it very easy to collect DNA with minimal record- keeping. Recently, Allflex ® has added a tissue collection method that is compatible with Neo- gen’s DNA processing steps. DNA testing has taken major leaps recently. The original STR profiles only utilized 12 pairs of alleles. Therefore, parentage was often in- conclusive because a calf qualified for several sires, and there wasn’t enough DNA informa- tion to determine the exact sire. Therefore, a sire group in which several bulls qualified as the potential sire to a particular calf were is- sued instead of naming a specific sire. In June 2016, the association began its conversion to SNP profiling. This change was dictated largely by the lab as their future capacity building was focused on SNP processing and other genomic solutions that are based on SNP technology. SNPs uses a minimum of 90 markers, which

AAA CONVENTION SPEAKERS Continued from page 25

Jaye Massey, Operations Manager, DigitalBeef ® Jaye Massey is operations

manager at DigitalBeef. She joined the DigitalBeef team in August 2016, and has worked on business and product development as well as new marketing initiatives for the company. Massey has been actively directing the modernization of the Dig-

italBeef registry portal and the development of CowCalf, the company’s new herd management product. Massey received her bachelor’s degree in business administration and marketing from Texas A&M University. She has experience working in advertising, human resources and account management. PT

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