Monthly Dairy Webinar on May 29 to Focus on Impact of Inbreeding in Holstein Dairy Cattle

May 14, 2025

By Fred M. Hall

The Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Dairy Team’s monthly webinar series continues on Thursday, May 29, from noon to 1 p.m. This program will be presented by John Cole, chief research and development officer with the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding. He will discuss the impact of inbreeding in Holstein dairy cattle.

Genetic base changes include both corrections for observed genetic trends in the population and adjustments to account for inbreeding, according to Cole. He will share

how the changes observed in Predicted Transmitting Ability for individual animals may not match the base change values as they have previously, due to larger Estimated Future Inbreeding changes in the population than in the past.

Before joining the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, Cole spent three years as the senior vice president, research and development, for PEAK Genetics, where he oversaw genetics and reproductive biology research for the largest producer of cattle genetics in the world.

Cole has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed research articles, mentored many postdoctoral scientists and graduate students and is a frequent speaker at industry and scientific meetings.

Producers, dairy consultants and industry reps are encouraged to attend the webinar live, which is available at no cost. Those who wish to attend should register online at least one hour before the webinar.

This webinar will also be archived for later viewing on the ISU Extension Dairy Team website.

Source : iastate.edu

Video: We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck

There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.