The southern United States contains almost half of the nation's cow-calf population in the hot/humid Southeast and Gulf Coast areas. Even in more temperate areas of the United States, weaning productivity of Brahman x Bos taurus cows is virtually unequaled.

These are presentation slides created by Dr. Tom Field discussing means for genetic change for cattle. This talk was presented at the Beef Cattle Genetic Shortcourse for beef producers on tools for making genetic change, cost effectiveness and traits that affect the cost of production. The presentation is in two different formats, PowerPoint and Acrobat Adobe.

Dr. Lisa Kriese-Anderson, Associate Professor & Extension Animal Scientist at Auburn University, will talk about beef genetics and measurement basics at the Beef Cattle Genetics Short Course Tuesday, November 1, 2005. The course will continue for two consecutive Tuesday nights. The LSU AgCenter, in cooperation with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Auburn University, is hosting the short course. Other talks will be on adaptability, crossbreeding and EPDs.

This presentation was created by Dr. Scott P. Greiner for the Beef Cattle Genetics Short Course, which began Tuesday, November 1, 2005, and will continue for two consecutive Tuesday nights. The LSU AgCenter, in cooperation with the Mississippi State University Extension Service and Auburn University, is hosting the Short Course to aid beef producers on EPDs and Indexes.

Based on these results, a cow-calf producer wishing to retain suitable heifers as herd replacements and sell the remaining heifers at weaning can reasonably consider implanting all heifer calves. High-protein creep, limit-fed to suckling heifer calves had no effect on pre-weaning, post-weaning, or reproductive performance in this study.

Estrus synchronization had its humble beginnings in the 1940s when progesterone and pregnant mare serum gonadotropin were administered to cattle at varying stages of the estrous cycle to alter cyclicity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of altrenogest for estrus synchronization of crossbred beef heifers.

These data suggest that good quality hay fed free choice can meet nutrient requirements during the last one-third of gestation, a period when the nutrient requirements of the cow increase because of the growth of the fetus.

Breeders should be aware of how individual sire breeds combine with breeds or crossbred types ofcows to produce calves for sale or for replacements. Using sires of a breed that influences larger birth weights and greater calving difficulty could offset any advantage gained by that sire breed in calf growth rate or carcass characteristics.

The purpose of this study was to determine if the behavioral patterns exhibited by potential recipients during estrus could be used as an indicator of subsequent pregnancy rates following embryo transfer. The success of any embryo transfer operation ultimately resides in the reproductive performance of the recipient females.

The purpose of this report is to compare the performance of two-, three- and four-breed rotational crossbreeding systems and straight-breeds for calf weaning weight per cow exposed and for cumulative weaning weight per cow entering the herd.