Intro (00:04):

Angus at Work, a podcast for the profit-minded cattleman. Brought to you by the Angus Beef Bulletin, we have news and information on health, nutrition, marketing, genetics and management. So let’s get to work, shall we?

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Host (01:02):

Hello and welcome to the Angus at Work podcast. I'm your host, Shauna Hermel, and we're here today visiting with Kelli Retallick-Riley, president of Angus Genetics Inc. (AGI).

Kelli, I had a chance to listen to your presentation ‘The Heart of the Matter’ at Feeding Quality Forum mid-August. For folks who might not know what that event is, Certified Angus Beef hosts an event each fall bringing together different players within that beef industry supply chain to look at some of the factors that are affecting current demand in the beef marketplace. You gave a great overview of bovine congestive heart failure (BCHF), the status of the research and where we are in terms of developing a genetic predictor of an animal’s propensity toward expressing the condition. I want to thank you for joining us here at Angus at Work today to recap some of that discussion.

Now, many in our audience aren’t going to be familiar with the structure of the American Angus Association on the commercial side of the industry. Can you tell us a little bit about how AGI fits in with the American Angus Association, and what its purpose is?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (02:19):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Angus Genetics Inc., like Angus Media, is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Angus Association. We're one of two for-profit entities that have really been there to support the research and development efforts, genomics and genetic technology for Angus breeders and their commercial cattle customers. And so we really focus on things like bringing new technologies to the forefront.

When AGI began in 2007, we were were at a turning point, I would say, in breeding programs. We were just starting to talk about genomic technology, genomic testing and those sorts of things. Land-grant universities who historically ran breed association genetic evaluations were getting out of that business. I think the American Angus Association had just transitioned their genetic evaluation in-house five or six years prior to the start of AGI. And so I think that culmination of events really said, hey, we need a dedicated workforce that comes in every day to think about genetic technology, to think about genetic evaluation, to think about new ways to use data and answer questions from a genetic standpoint.

And that’s really where AGI kind of blossomed in for as we look in the next frontier, now we're thinking about all these new tools out there to collect data. How do we reach further into the commercial cattle industry and down the beef supply chain to get data points we’re going to talk about today to bring back and be able to make genetic change in the industry? And so I think really having a group like AGI that’s came in every day, and it’s just keenly focused on very important parts of the association, but very technical parts of the association continues to keep Angus breeders in the forefront of the beef industry.

Host (04:03):

So doing a lot of that research and developing some of those genetic tools. I mean, that’s an important part of your team’s role there at AGI and you have a whole team. Can you introduce them?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (04:15):

We have both a customer service team. I know a lot of our seedstock producers are individuals using tools like GeneMax^® Advantage™ for the commercial cow. We probably have talked to a lot of them. So Ms. Kayla Wookey, she would be our customer service team lead on that side. And we have a lot of tenure in that group as well. We have someone like Gayla Fuston, who was actually the first employee of AGI outside of the AGI president at the time. She’s been with us for a long time. We have several others on that team that are really a highlight.

Then, when you look across and we have what we affectionately call our R&D team. We do a lot of different things for a lot of different people, I would say. But their goal is to really provide those services right back to the Association and some other breed clients that we have. We have Andre Garcia, Rafael Medeiros, Larissa Novo and Pedro Ramos that are all on that team. So they’re all trained PhD geneticists that come in every day and think about our problems — Angus problems — and solutions that we can solve with genetics.

Host (05:17):

So what kind of research do you look at and how do you decide which ones you might task your team with?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (05:23):

That’s a great question. So I like to think of it a little bit like a bucket, Shauna. As far as research that we tackle, we do a lot of research around the genetic evaluation efficiency. So you know that for American Angus breeders, we run a weekly evaluation.

Host (05:41):

That is a task with as many traits as we have today.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (05:44):

And so when you think about a weekly genetic evaluation for someone like the American Angus Association, they have 80 to 90 million data points and a lot of genomic data. Obviously, our computers are really good, but they have to do a lot of work to crunch those numbers out on a weekly basis. So a lot of our time is spent on making sure that we refine those models, making sure that the data of today and how we set those initial parameters in those models.

In the beginning when I talk about models, think about, for instance, our growth model. You’re going to be using the birth weights and the weaning weights and the yearling weights from our individual cattle and putting them all together and crunching those EPDs out of that. One thing that body of work does is once we release a new EPD, we just don’t let it live out there on its own for the rest of the time. We keep tabs on it. We go back, we want to make sure that as people select their populations, their population changes, right? The animals change and so averages changes. And so we have to go back in, we have to predict those things and just make sure that it’s as accurate as possible. So that’s one really big bucket. But then from there, we do a lot of additional research on genomic tools and other services. So think about something like the GeneMax Advantage test.

Host (07:05):

That's a tool for commercial cattlemen to use on Angus-specific heifers.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (07:10):

One of the research projects that we just did was actually to tack on the Angus dollar values ($Values) to the commercial heifer test. So now as a commercial breeder, if I want to use that genomic test, I can compare those dollar values directly.

Host (07:24):

It helps to have a common language, doesn't it? I mean, to be able to have one system talk to the other.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (07:30):

Exactly. And so that’s some of the types of research that we do. And then probably a little bit more of what we’re going to talk about today, Shauna, is really around novel phenotype research or novel trait research. So I'm thinking of new types of records or using old records in new ways to be able to describe economically relevant traits for the industry.

Host (07:49):

You bet. So how do you determine which trait you’re going to put effort into? Do you do surveys for that? Is it just kind of monitoring the industry out there?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (08:02):

Yeah, it is a little bit of combination of both. We do use membership and industry surveys. So you conducted an industry insight survey. We spent time in this room working on those results for sure, together. And one of the things that we use that type of research for is just to understand the trends in the industry, where people’s focus is going to be, what types of questions or opportunities there still are out there. We use membership surveys, especially for Association research.

So I like to think of AGI as doing that work on behalf of the American Angus Association. They send us the questions, they send us the data, we crunch the numbers and then we send it back to them for review. So that’s kind of a way that works. When I think about that, those membership surveys are so important for us to get that feedback. We also host things when we go to cattle industry events like Feeding Quality Forum or the Imagine Angus Beef Genetics Forum. We get out to some of those other events. We really bring back a lot of that energy, a lot of that knowledge and work specifically with the Angus Breed Improvement Committee when we’re doing things on behalf of the American Angus Association.

Host (09:18):

So how does that relationship work with the American Angus Association and Breed Improvement. How do you make those two programs cohabitate?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (09:28):

Yeah, no, that’s a great question. So as you think about the American Angus Association, they are the parent company of AGI. They own us. They get to boss us around to some extent. We always work within the governance of the American Angus Association, but we’re also a service provider to the Association. So if we weren’t here doing their genetic analysis, they would either have to build those internal services within their organization to be able to do that or they would have to farm it out to someone else. There’s other genetic evaluation-type companies out there that can provide those services. Angus is unique in that their genetic evaluation company is right here in the same building.

Host (10:05):

It’s one of our greatest assets if you really get right down to it.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (10:09):

Well, I appreciate you saying that. It definitely is something that we really love to do. Because we’re a separate entity, we’re actually able to provide those services for other groups as well. So whether that be other breed evaluation clients or breed association clients, we can do that for a fee for service and then turn that around and be able to use that in research around the genetic evaluation optimizations and things like that. It just costs money to make sure that we have the dollars to invest in the research and also the dollars to invest in a really great team that can come in here and do that work.

Host (10:42):

And you’ve even been able to expand that on a world stage now with the World Genetic Evaluation.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (10:49):

The World Angus Evaluation, that’s a really fun one for us. So what we were able to do there is facilitate a genetic evaluation between the American Angus Association and the Canadian Angus Association. That actually has been going on for quite a long time. Since about 2000 those two associations have been together. Within the last couple of years we've added Angus Australia. And so that would include obviously Australian animals and some New Zealand animals in that packet. But I think it just really goes to the breadth of how much U.S. Angus genetics are used around the globe. The only way we do those things is if we have connections, right? And through artificial insemination and in the exchange of embryos and things like that, Shauna, we're able to make those strong connections. And so all those evaluations can talk to each other

Host (11:33):

That’s wonderful. Now talking about BCHF, we'll get back on track to the heart of the matter here. Tell me what BCHF is?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (11:44):

Bovine congestive heart failure is a form of noninfectious heart disease. We see it at low elevations and we also see it at higher elevations. You've probably heard of things like high altitude disease or brisket disease.

Host (11:56):

You bet. Are they the same thing?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (11:58):

That’s a great question. Verdict’s still out there as to far is if they’re the exact same type of response. Because the one thing we know about high altitude disease, Shauna, is the fact that yes, they’re dying of right-sided heart failure like we're seeing in the feedyards. We know the stressor that brings that on at high altitudes. It's the fact that those cattle are grazing and living in those hypoxic environments. And so what happens is they live in these low oxygenated environments and all of a sudden they don't have enough oxygen to feed back out into their bloodstream and things like that. So what it will do is they’ll actually shunt off, or excuse me, they’ll close down a piece of their lungs and basically shunt the blood closer to the heart to be able to pump it back out from that perspective. And you start to shunt that blood into those areas and we're shutting down lobes of those hearts. Basically, what you can start to see is it's kind of like if you have a garden hose that's kinked.

All the water, it gets more pressurized. What’s happening in those cattle's hearts, they’re having to feed blood through a smaller hole in their heart. And basically that buildup of pressure and that remodeling and that hypertrophy that's taking place in that heart eventually gives out. And what will happen is it blows out their pulmonary artery. That’s how they succumb to BCHF. The difference in what we’re seeing in the feedyards is that we don’t really know what’s causing them to go into that process

Host (13:32):

Partly because there have been cattle that have been at a lot lower altitude than the, what is it? 5,000 feet is kind of the cutoff that we use for testing high altitude disease.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (13:44):

And so that's the question mark that we still have. They're both dying of congestive heart failure. So you would think just logically that there's probably some part of an overlap, but we really haven't been able to indefinitely answer that quite yet. And so that's part of the work that we're doing here at the American Angus Association because we have producers that are testing their animals for pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), and we have a PAP EPD that people are able to select animals that may be more resilient to high altitude disease. And now we're also getting in and we're measuring the degree of heart remodeling on cattle as they're running through the plant. So we're actually taking some heart scores on a one through five scale out of the plant, Shauna. And what that's helping us to do is to determine whether or not we see certain sire lines that are showcasing progeny running through the plant with a higher degree of heart remodeling.

Host (14:41):

Okay. So do you have some of that research in hand?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (14:45):

Yeah, so we have some of it. Right now we're working on what we call a reference population, Shauna, because obviously this isn't data that our seedstock population can get. If you're scoring hearts, well, those cattle are not going to be used for breeding purposes.

Host (14:59):

They're no longer here.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (14:59):

Right. And so when we think about that, we're building a reference population where we're going into the plants, we're scoring some of those hearts. We're also taking a genotype on those animals. So we're able to link them up to Angus sires that we have here in the database. We're just starting the exploration on that group of animals, or excuse me, those group of scores to start to see things like, hey, is there a heritability to this trait? If there's a heritability to this trait that would say to us, Shauna, that there's probably some value in selecting for this from a genetic perspective. And with that, probably the more important part of what we're also looking at is how, if that trait is heritable, how it's compatible or its correlation with other traits that are of economic importance.

Host (15:44):

You bet. You talked in Rochester about some of the four different steps that we need to go through to provide that genetic tool and the four things that have to be there in order to make that sound science, if you will. Can you explain a little bit about those? I believe you said it was heritability — I won't get these in order — utility, we had scalability and compatibility, right?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (16:12):

Yeah. So when I talk about heritability, right, that's just trying to determine if we have a set of data, how much of it is controlled by genetics versus how much of it is influenced by environment or management perspectives. And so if we have a heritability to an individual trait that we're collecting, like heart remodeling scores, that would tell me that, hey, there is an opportunity to select genetically to change that trait in one direction or the other. And so that's kind of my first step. We got to get some data collected in order to see what the heritability is and it there's even a chance.

Host (16:47):

 And so we know there's lowly heritable traits like our lovely reproductive traits and medium and high heritability. Where would you place gut feel for what we're looking at with BCHF?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (17:01):

So there's been other groups that are out there working on similar topics to ours. Obviously, this is a fairly large industry question. There's lots of different groups that are out there, and we're collaborating from a standpoint of exchange of thoughts and ideas and information. And I would say we've seen a range of anywhere around less than 0.2 to as high as 0.3, 0.36 for heart remodeling. And so it looks to be like it could be a heritable trait. Although when you think of something that's a 20% heritability that means it's 80% influenced by whatever that animal's going through throughout his lifetime. And so it's definitely something that I think will turn out ... Heart remodeling in itself will probably turn out to be heritable. I think the other reality of it is we still have lots of questions to answer around how can we use that? What does that mean as far as managing those cattle? Because is there any way to manage these cattle a little bit differently to decrease the risk of something succumbing to congestive heart failure?

Host (18:03):

Okay. So do you feel confident that it's going to be scalable?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (18:09):

I feel confident that in a program where we can actually collect those, where we have those relationships downstream, that we'll be able to scale this. Obviously, I think we could use some influencers, maybe some help from people like the packers as we think about, could there be a way where we get cameras in the plant or something like that where we could actually have them over top of the gut table so we could call these traits, those sorts of things. Because right now, basically what we're doing is we're sending an individual into the plant to score those on that one through five scale. And a lot of times we don't see the fives, right? Because the fives, those hearts are the ones that unfortunately didn't make it to the kill floor. And so when we talk about that, is it scalable? Well, we have a lot of cattle that are getting harvested, I should say, every single day. And so from that standpoint, we can collect the amount of data. Obviously, there's a cost to collecting a genotype on those animals. There's a cost to having someone in the plant to call those animals. And so I do think it's scalable, but I think it's going to take a collaboration down the industry chain to make sure that those things can be viable long term. Because the reality is I can collect a reference population and I may find all these answers, but the work's not done there.

Host (19:24):

Yeah.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (19:25):

You know that.

Host (19:25):

Yep.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (19:26):

We got to continue to collect data. You can't just collect a group of five or 10,000 records and then expect that to hold true for the rest of time.

Host (19:34):

I know we talk about camera grading and things like that. Are there any technologies out there that might make that helpful for the packer? Because it's of monetary importance to the feeder who's feeding those cattle and possibly losing them in the feedlot? Less so to the packer who, I mean he's not paying for the dead ones.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (19:55):

And I think there is. That's where that compatibility is going to come in, Shauna, is to understand the correlation between something like heart remodeling, these other traits, we've seen previous reports out of the literature say that the correlation between something like heart score and carcass weight is moderately heritable. So when you think in those terms, those are definitely things that the packer is going to pay attention to. And then I just think overall in the industry, whether one person's paying for it or not, generally, we got to make sure that our product is accepted by the consumer. And I don't think anybody wants to have to hear about a bunch of cattle that are succumbing to congestive heart failure in the feed yard. It's an unfortunate event on the beef industry. So this is going to be one we're all going to have to work together because I think you could say the same thing for cow-calf industry. If they're not experiencing any heart failure death on their own operations, well, I can pass the problem down to the feeder. I think we all need to work together on this one to really solve it.

Host (20:57):

If we're seeing some problems at the feedlot, is it likely we could be seeing some of that at the cow-calf level too and just not understanding what it is it?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (21:07):

Could be. And I think that's where the feedyard industry was for a long time. We talk about congestive heart failure in the feedyards a lot right now. It's been in the popular press for a while there, Shauna, but it didn't seem like you could open a magazine or go to an industry event without talking about it. But at the same time, I think what's happening is that feedyards are getting better at recognizing it. I do think that maybe there was a level of persistence there always. And maybe we were calling them different types of deaths because a lot of times these live cattle, they present as kind of Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) cases or persistently infected cases. They're lethargic and they have snotty noses and those sorts of things. And so you just think, oh, well, they succumb to respiratory disease and without opening them up and actually looking at the heart, you can't indefinitely tell whether or not they're dying of congestive heart failure.

Host (22:02):

And maybe, I know at the Feeding Quality Forum, you mentioned that we might be losing those cattles with a few less days on feed than what we had thought originally.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (22:11):

Yeah.

Host (22:11):

Do you want to expound upon that?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (22:13):

Yeah, I mean, I just think in general when we talk about our population of cattle that we have today, we are feeding a bit longer days on feed. I think there's a couple of reasons for that. Obviously, cattle inventory supplies are tight, so we're trying to provide enough value down the supply chain. I think the other part of that is we have cattle that can actually remain in the feedlot for a longer time and continue to grow. I was talking to a feeder that I really respect out of Kansas here actually after the Feeding Quality Forum. And that's the one thing that he mentioned to me. He goes, if I would've fed the cattle 10 to 15 years ago, he goes, I couldn't physically get these cattle that big. Now, with the genetic potential that's built into them, we're able to get them bigger, which means more days on feed, which unfortunately means that they have more opportunity to have problems in the feedyard.

Host (23:09):

Push that body structure a little bit further. So at the Beef Improvement Federation we were talking about 1,500 lb. carcasses. Not live cattle, but 1,500 lb. carcasses. Do you think that approach is maybe increasing how many the incidents of what we see?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (23:30):

I don't know if I have any hard evidence to say, yeah, there is definitely a direct component to that. I think that's just one thing that's always on everybody's mind. And I also think that when cattle die at the end of the feeding period right before they're going to go on, we have a lot of money invested in those cattle. Those are the cattle that we remember and that are hurt. But that hurt us probably the most from an economic standpoint, profitability standpoint. But the one thing that we found in our early research with congestive heart failure was that we really saw cattle succumbing to this congestive heart failure at all stages, at all times throughout the feeding period. And so we're losing them, I think on average ... I'm trying to remember what the middle of my bell curve looks like, but we're losing them. We have a midpoint, and it is a fairly normal distribution around when we're losing those cattle on days on feed.

Host (24:27):

Okay. Going down to that step three on utility, how do you feel? Are you confident that we have utility in this kind of a product or can you explain what you mean by that for this?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (24:41):

Yeah. When I talk about utility, I'm talking about is there variation in the population and how does it really play a role. I think utility and compatibility are really two of those traits that kind of go together because I think when you think about something, is the trait usable? Well, is it having an economic impact on our profitability equation as we think about it from a cow-calf and a feed yard perspective. Utility to me is also just the variation in the trait. Is something heritable? Does it have variance? Can we actually select cattle that have a lower degree of heart remodeling in general than others? And then I think the compatibility piece comes in to utility as well, because we had to understand the relationships between these traits and how hard and how fast should we select against something like heart remodeling. From that perspective, we always talk about not single trait selecting when we're using genetic tools. And I think really understanding how the relationships between something like heart remodeling and the rest of our carcass traits is really going to help us determine how quickly and how fast that we're going to and how much selection pressure we're going to put on something like heart health or heart remodeling.

Host (25:56):

You bet, you bet. Now, and you've explained a little bit about this, but in 2022 AGI launched into what it called a Heart Health Initiative. Can you explain a little bit about that program and just the effort that you are expending there?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (26:13):

Yeah, no, that's great. So the Heart Health Initiative is really an industry coalition in a sense. It keeps getting a little bit bigger day by day, Shauna, as we keep calling on resources. That's a good thing, right?

Host (26:26):

Yeah, it's perfect.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (26:27):

But we keep calling on resources as we continue to find groups of cattle that we really want to be employed in this project. It started in 2022 with really an effort between AGI, the Angus Foundation, Certified Angus Beef, Cargill and Five Rivers Cattle Feeding who was so generous to be able to help us pinpoint groups that were having problems that had a lot of Angus-sired influence in there. And what we were able to do is track those cattle through that feeding period and then take those heart remodeling scores once they got to the plant. And so that was a really great partnership and relationship for us. We've also been employing the American Angus Association structured sire evaluation cattle in this project as well. When we can we get into those plants as they're getting ready to be harvested and make sure that we can capture those scores. And some of those animals that we know are out of influential, highly-used sires or young sires, right, that are up and coming in the Angus breed.

Host (27:24):

Going to say, if you could go back and kind of explain what that structured sire evaluation program is today. How are we using that program? How is it structured and who all is involved in that?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (27:36):

So the association Structured Sire Evaluation program is kind of how it sounds. So we use reference sires in that population. So Esther Tarpoff would really be the individual who leads that group and leads that initiative on behalf of the Association. But it really started out of the idea of as we were bringing on genomic technology and we were creating a lot of EPDs through genomic relationships. We wanted to make sure that we had enough real carcass data to support those predictions. We targeted a lot of animals who had a lot of ultrasound data, but maybe not a lot of true carcass data at the plant. And that's really how it started. Since we've been able to fill in some of those gaps and increase our prediction accuracy on carcass traits, we've been able to move on and make it more of a young sire kind of progeny test program. Where Dr. Tarpoff is using reference sire ... Reference sires, Shauna, as you know, are just sires that actually have progeny in the database, right?

Host (28:37):

Right. Accuracy sires.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (28:39):

So they anchor that program and then actually individual Association members are able to nominate young bulls to that program to be able to test their goals against those reference sires and some commercial cohort herds that we have enrolled.

Host (28:53):

Develops some accuracy on some commercial herds.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (28:56):

Correct. And I think the cool thing about that program is it gives a producer who maybe doesn't have the ability to set up a sire test for himself to get involved in a program where we can really help facilitate that.

Host (29:09):

That's wonderful. So getting back to that Heart Health Initiative, where are we sitting in terms of that research right now?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (29:16):

Yeah, we're about three-fourths done with the capture of our first reference population. We've started to do some preliminary analysis on that dataset as well. And so once we kind of complete, we're hoping to have our first set of genomic reference data (or basically having the number of targeted heart remodeling scores alongside genotypes) done by Jan. 1, 2026. And so we can start to look at, okay, what is the utility? What is the compatibility of those heart remodeling scores with some of our other carcass traits? And so that's kind of where we're at today. It's definitely something where everyone would love us to have a tool yesterday, for sure. Shauna, I think the one thing that we've learned as we've collected this data, one just trying to understand the differences between the population we've collected and some of the differences we've seen in literature.

It's been pretty interesting to see that we may have a little bit different lower heritability than what we're seeing in some of those original papers that came out. So we're trying to understand the differences there and then really kind of interrogate some of those correlations between the traits. And our goal at AGI is we never want to rush the science. We always want to take our time and make sure that what we're putting out to the industry is really solid and sound. And so we know that there's other tools that are popping up and other groups that are working on this from that standpoint. And we really want to be really keen to have the scientific rigor that we need to have, because we know people rely on Angus genetics a whole lot in this industry. We want to make sure that we're putting tools out there that people can pick up with confidence.

Host (30:55):

One of the things that seems maybe difficult in looking at some of the research sets, animal sets, not many sires are known on. A lot of those cattle are there. How can you create a genetic tool if you don't have the sire?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (31:16):

So that's one beauty of being part in being a kid, I guess, of the parent organization that is the American Angus Association. We do know that we have a really high influence of Angus sires. And so one thing that we've been able to do at AGI, and we're going to use it for multiple purposes, but one really cool thing that we've done is we've created a parentage discovery system. So we can actually just bring those genotypes in, and what we do is we blast them against the 2 million genotypes that we have on file.

Host (31:45):

Oh my. How long does it take the computer to do that?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (31:50):

I've been getting our Information Systems department ... When they see me coming they know that it's going to cost them in terms of time and materials.

Host (31:58):

All for the cause.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (32:01):

All for the cause. And so after about six hours of crunching throughout that whole database, it can come up. If the sire is there, we'll find it. And for the animals that we can't find, we can use things like a genomic bluff. But basically we're building a pedigree with just the genomic relationships. But because we have availability of that pedigree and all those other genotypes, we can use that tool and make it a bit more sound.

Host (32:27):

Excellent. So you can go back to some older research sets and add information to it to make that whole research project more, I guess, more appropriate to our needs.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (32:39):

Yeah. More robust, more appropriate to our needs. The other thing that we've really targeted, too. is I talked about Five Rivers Cattle Feeding. We've been working with U.S. Premium Beef as well. Obviously, they work with a lot of individuals who would retain a lot of ownership on those types of cattle. And so we've been able to enroll quite a few of those groups as well. And we almost get a 100% sire found rate.

Host (33:03):

Oh, wonderful.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (33:04):

We use that in the discovery pipeline there.

Host (33:06):

Is there anything our audience can do and realizing it's made up of commercial and seedstock producers to help foster the research on BCHF?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (33:17):

Yeah, I mean, I think for sure you guys, if you have a feedyard or maybe you retain ownership and you've seen some problems in your cattle, definitely reach out to us. Especially if you're retaining ownership when those cattle are going to go to harvest, depending on their location and things like that. We've worked with some individual groups. We actually go and score those cattle. If you have cattle that you think might be subject to congestive heart failure and they've died in your feedyard or at home, call the vet and have them necropsied. Do that. And if there is signs of that, take a DNA sample, send it into us. We have a sheet that has been targeted for high altitude disease. From that standpoint, cattle that may have succumbed to brisket disease, but we can use a similar type of form for congestive heart failure. I'm not going to say that I'm going to be able to turn a whole bunch of answers back over to you right away, Shauna, but what I am saying is if we don't have the data, we're never going to be able to. If we don't have the materials, we're never going to be able to do the research. And so those are a couple of things that you can do. A lot of people ask me, well, should I be selecting on PAP EPD?

Host (34:22):

Right! Is it close enough in order to avoid congestive heart failure?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (34:27):

While I do not have a good answer for you on that one yet, what I will say about PAP is doesn't really have a high negative correlation to any other trait that would be of economic importance to you right now.

And so my thing is, if you keep it ...

Host (34:43):

It's not going to kill marbling.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (34:44):

Yeah, you're not going to give up all your marbling or all your postweaning gain or anything like that. And so I think those are some things that if you feel like that's the right fit for you, just kind of keep an eye on that and maybe that will work out for you in the end.

Host (34:59):

At this point in the research project, are you pretty confident that at some point we'll have a EPD for congestive heart failure score?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (35:08):

Yeah, I don't know. I think we're still going to do the research. We've got to collect some more data, really investigate that. I think at the end of the day, things that we want to interrogate is obviously heart score alongside heart remodeling score alongside some of our patent data and understand what is the relationship there. Maybe it's a combined heart health type of trait or something like that that we can feed out to the American Angus Association members, which then obviously we know can make genetic change. I don't want to spoil anybody's expectations or anything like that, but I do think we're definitely well on our way to understanding more and finding the other questions that we need to answer.

Host (35:51):

Wonderful. Now, people who are interested and want to go online and pull your slides off, they can go to feedingqualityforum.com and pull those slides down from the actual event. And, hopefully, we'll have a story up there here pretty soon that they can access as well as there a place they can go angus.org too, to maybe gather information on what you're doing from a research project.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (36:18):

So we would've done a Angus University webinar, Shauna, probably about a year ago that's posted online. And we really get into some of the pathophysiology of what this trait means, what our project looks like, how we got started, all those sorts of things. So I'd encourage people to go out on the Angus YouTube channel, look at the Angus University webinars there, and we have a really good one up right now.

Host (36:41):

Well, we can include a link to that in our show notes and help people get to that too. Any closing thoughts?

Kelli Retallick-Riley (36:48):

No, I just appreciate being able to get on here and talk through this today. I think this is a very industry relevant topic. Like I said, here at AGI we just want to do the best that we can to help support not only American Angus Association members, but the entire beef industry at solving problems with genetics. We think genetics are pretty cool, but we've also been called a bunch of nerd shots.

Host (37:11):

Somebody has got to be the nerds, right? So everybody else can go play. And I sure want to thank you for helping author our Sorting Gate column that we put into the Angus Beef Bulletin. That's a monthly column that you provide to help give some insights on how producers can use some of those genetic tools that we have to help improve their herds or maybe eliminate some of the problematic things that we do. Well, we always end our Angus at Work podcast on something positive. So what is one of the features that we've done since we started the podcast. So is there something that you can share either on a personal or professional level that you consider pretty neat ...

Kelli Retallick-Riley (37:55):

Pretty neat, just generally pretty neat? Oh man. It's almost like I'm paralyzed by the power of choice. As far as saying something that's pretty neat, I would say every day when I walk into this building. I think something that's pretty neat is I get to work for the same people that I grew up with. When I took this role at AGI, and specifically when I went to the president's role here about, I don't know, four years ago now, Shauna? I think somebody asked me what success would look like when I left that position. And I said, I hope there is just as many people or more people in the Angus business being able to pass on their herds to the next generation or in the cow-calf industry to pass their herds down to the next generation because of the things that I do in here. And so I think that that's pretty neat. I think that's what continues to drive my purpose right here at AGI. And I know that you would probably have similar thoughts, right? As you think about your own career and what you want to leave as a legacy.

Host (39:04):

Well, that passion, we sure appreciate for keeping our producers in business. We will look forward to many more interviews down the road.

Kelli Retallick-Riley (39:12):

That sounds awesome. Thanks, Shauna!

Outro (39:14):

Listeners, for more information on making Angus work for you, check out the Angus Beef Bulletin and the Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA. You can subscribe to both publications in the show notes. If you have questions or comments, let us know at abbeditorial@angus.org and we would appreciate it if you would leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with any other profit-minded cattlemen. Thanks for listening. This has been Angus at Work!