By now, we all recognize the importance of maintaining cows in adequate body condition score as they approach calving season. Targeting a body condition score of 6 at calving will enhance reproductive function in the cow, reduce the postpartum interval, enhance conception rates and condense the calving season. However, can the growth of the unborn calf be impacted by how the mother is fed during gestation? Results from recent research trials indicate that offspring performance can be enhanced simply by providing a higher plane of nutrition to the cow. While this seems elementary, the effects are not confined to the offspring while it is a calf; instead, the impacts can be detected well into the animal’s mature growth. A recent hypothesis regarding the impact of maternal nutrition on offspring postnatal growth and development has been termed “Fetal Programming.”

Although bucking stock are not raised primarily as meat for human consumption, there are certainly bulls and older cows that end up in the human food chain at the end of their career. In this issue of Bull Pen we will shift from our usual perspective of bucking stock as performance animal and shift to bucking stock as a member of a food animal species.

Elite PBR bulls have personality, talent, and devoted owners that do not see their investment as a food animal species. However, in the eyes of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) these bulls

Bull Pen Magazine Contributing Editor Sugar Kuhn sits down for an in-depth DNA discussion with MMI Genomics Chief of Operations, Dr. Dennis Fantin.

"Eventually genomic sciences will allow us to unravel a deep understanding of how genes interact to produce beef cattle with more tender meat, for instance, or dairy cattle that produce more milk with higher protein content, or even bucking bulls that perform better in the arena." - Dr. Dennis Fantin, MMI Genomics Chief of Operations

We have covered proper nutrition in previous columns here. In this breeders’ issue of the Bull Pen, we thought an expansion of the previous articles was in order.

We have discussed in several previous articles the need for proper nutrition to be supplied to the cow herd. In this breeders’ issue of the Bull Pen, we thought an expansion of the previous articles was in order. Many comments were received and questions generated by the article, so hopefully we can satisfy some of those questions with the following discussion.