Outreach Program – Breeding & Genetics

Outreach

Animal agriculture is the leading agricultural activity in Colorado accounting for 65% of cash receipts for 2016. As a land-grant institution, Colorado State University contributes to animal agriculture by incorporating research, education and outreach into its Animal Science programs. The Breeding and Genetics group is actively involved in outreach with livestock producers and industry leaders. The group works to educate producers about research and technology for the improvement of livestock production. The group provides services such as genetic evaluations and educational short courses for producers and industry leaders.

Center for Genetic Evaluation of Livestock (CGEL)

The Center for Genetic Evaluation of Livestock (CGEL) conducts numerous genetic evaluations for breed associations, private companies and seedstock producers around the world by providing population level genetic evaluations. In addition to these evaluations, CGEL produces new and cutting-edge evaluations on traits of interest for producers. Colorado State University is a premier academic University that conducts national cattle evaluations. The overall objective for the program is to maintain a “big picture” view of the industry and focus on the entire profitability of the industry.

Genetic Short Courses

Currently, the Breeding and Genetics group provides several short courses to further educate producers. These courses are taught by specialists within each topic with a goal to disseminate research findings and future research topics.

Equine Genetic Short Course. This course provides horse breeders and owners with valuable information regarding the selection of animals for breeding. The course discusses current and future research in the realm of equine genetics. Producers are provided information on the equine genome in addition to tools for selecting animals to breed the next generation of horses.

Pulmonary Arterial Pressure Short Course. Cattle raised at higher elevations are susceptible to the development of high altitude disease. Pulmonary arterial pressure, or PAP, is a veterinarian procedure that is used as an indicator of the presence of high altitude disease. The PAP short course provides veterinarians information on testing procedures and current research developments in high altitude disease. The course is taught by leading veterinarians, physiologists and geneticists who study high altitude disease and pulmonary hypertension.

In addition to CGEL and short courses, the Breeding and Genetics group regularly presents at producer meetings such as Beef Improvement