Doing Beef Cattle Genetics Tests

by Susan Dawson

When farmers raise cattle in order for these animals to be turned into meat later on, it is always very crucial for them to perform some beef cattle genetics tests. Now the main reason as to why these tests have to be performed to simply check whether the animal to be slaughtered would have some irregularities in it. That way, farmers will know which of their livestock will be healthy enough to be turned into consumable meat.

When the livestock is still at the farm, the farmers have to know how to test the cows for their physical and inner traits. The first type of test they would do is the qualitative test which would check for any abnormalities with the physical aspect of any animal. These animals would be tested for proper body sizes, color, hair traits, or even horns.

The next test is known as the quantitative test which will measure certain things about the animal that can be calculated in numbers. Things like weight, amount of fat, and the amount of certain nutrients in the body of a cattle will really be measured. This is to ensure that all the statistics meet the standards of its manufacturer.

Now there is a type of testing that is known as sampling and this would involve getting bits of DNA from the cow to check if there are any problems with its genes. Laboratories would usually offer these types of kits to farmers who would want to check the condition of their livestock. These kits are fairly simple to use as there is also a guide on what steps to take.

The easiest method of sampling would actually be hair sampling. All this takes is just pulling out some hair from the tail of a cow and extracting a small piece of DNA from that tiny strand of hair. He just has to follow the steps that the instruction manual of the kit tells him to do.

Now for the calves who do not have the proper hair follicles yet because they are still young. For these kinds of cases, the blood sample would be the best testing ground because it can also extract DNA from the body of the calf. This is the alternative that will be done instead of the hair sampling test.

Do take note that it is much harder to draw blood from an animal instead of plucking out a few hairs. One would still need to inject the needle into the body of the animal, and start drawing out the blood. Once that is done, the blood will be placed in a tube where it will be used for testing.

Now before a farm would pass their animals to the manufacturers to sell to customers as raw meat, they have to make sure that all the <A href="http://www.irishblacks.com">beef cattle genetics</A> tests have been performed. It is only through that process where the meat that is sold to customers will actually be safe to eat. As long as the animal is already tested and found to be clean, then it can be turned into meat.