This has been a busy year for the Livestock Gentec team. Our team has grown and we are executing on our various projects with the University of Alberta group and our collaborators. We are excited to be leading three large-scale genomics projects. Scale is critical for genomics research to obtain a diverse genetic representation for useful and accurate predictions. For a year-end theme, we thought it would be interesting to reflect on the scale of our research projects in the last year and what is coming up next year.
Starting with our project, “Adoption of Genomic Tools”, in 2025 calendar year, we genotyped 10,393 animals, for a project total of 16,122 over 1.5 years. These genotypes have been used to generate genomic values shared with the producers enrolled in this pilot project (Learn more here). This directly lets producers put our research into practice. With this project, we have 64 producers with animals enrolled so far and we are collaborating with 8 service providers, livestock associations and producer research associations helping facilitate data collection and reporting. All animals were genotyped for 100,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
Next our Beef on Dairy project (see more here from our June 2025 issue), where scale is also a major part of the project. Dr. Chinyere Ekine-Dzivenu, Livestock Gentec research associate is busy with the pedigree-based genetic analysis with >200,000 animals with detailed records. In addition to the rich data set, we are collecting new genotypic and feed intake, feed efficiency and carcass quality data from related Beef on Dairy steers fed in Alberta feedlots. In 2025 we collected the feed intake and genotypic data from nearly 500 steers towards our goal of 1900 animals to complement the pedigree analysis.
Pictured: the Livestock Gentec team meeting with Olds College TACLP team. From left to right: Yaogeng Lei (Olds College), Dr. John Basarab (Gentec), Thi Lai To (Gentec), Dr. Chinyere Ekine-Dzivenu (Gentec), and Dr. Everestus Akanno (Gentec).
Last, the NSERC Alliance grant funded project “Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Canadian Beef Industry through the Development and Adoption of Genomic Tools”, we have completed 5 Animal trials in 2025, with 2 additional animal trials underway, representing 533 animals at 4 sites in Canada. Across these trials we have been collecting: genotypes, feed intake, methane emissions and fecal NIRS data (Methane reduction project article).The compiled datasets from complete trials currently have over 13,000 methane spot measurements. From these animals we have collected and processed over 1,300 fecal samples. Each fecal sample has been scanned using Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy with absorption values measured at 0.5nm increments between 400-2500nm from the visible spectra through the near infrared ranges. That means 4200 readings per spectra as a starting point. Each dataset type requires their own pipeline to refine to analyzable formats and correlate to the other dataset types from the same trials. Finally, in this project, complementing the research site data we have a pilot project with 2,300 animals currently enrolled to evaluate genomic tools as a beneficial management practices (BMPs) (Learn more about this pilot here).
The projects above, only represent active beef genomics projects. Dr. John Basarab and Dr. Graham Plastow have led and completed a number of beef cattle genomic projects over the last 10+ years with genomic and phenotypic datasets that could contribute to current and overarching Livestock Gentec goals. Dr. Everestus Akanno, senior research associate with Livestock Gentec, is compiling these datasets from the various projects into one large reference database. Across projects various genotype formats that have been used, Dr. Akanno has implemented common format and pipeline to transform genotypes between formats (eg: nucleotide to AB and TOP-TOP format). Additionally, genotypes are imputed between densities so there is a common SNP density in database for ready analysis. This work is iterative and ongoing as there are many sources of these genotypes and phenotypes, however, in its current form, there are over 65,000 genotypes already compiled! Each project had unique aims, however, we believe these historic reference data will contribute to higher accuracy of genomic breeding values with a number of hard to measure and economically important phenotypes measured.
We are sharing these figures to demonstrate how we are leveraging the scale of our research to drive new innovation and adoption of genomic technology. We believe adoption of this technology is important for sustainability and profitability of the beef industry. We recognize scale alone does not generate good research. It is only through world class facilities, our network of highly-competent collaborators and expert in-house team that we are able to achieve this scale of research excellence. These projects will continue for the next several years at the same pace and scale. Watch for updates as we dive into the analysis for these various datasets.