A near capacity crowd attended the Monday morning genomics presentation by Holstein USA geneticist at the 125th annual convention in Bloomington, Minn., Tom Lawlor. During his presentation, Lawlor explained to Holstein breeders issues like imputed indexes, rescaled PTAs, and other changes involving genomics following the April 2010 genetic evaluations. Lawlor noted that 2,004 Holstein females have imputed genomic evaluations which was a net savings of $501,000 on genotyping fees for breeders. After indexes were imputed and rescaled, 17 percent of cow indexes went up, with 83 percent dropping. Lawlor told breeders that USDA's Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory plans to have all females (genotyped, imputed, and traditionally indexed cows) on the same base by April 2011. After his lengthy, but very detailed presentation, a question-and-answer format followed with time for each attendee to get questions answered from association specialists. The discussion continued in the hallways and throughout regional caucuses.

Read the complete report of the National Holstein convention on page 516, of the August 10, 2010 issue.