Episode 03 (Season 02) - Polled Genetics - Goodbye to Dehorning Dairy Cows?

Polled genetics in cattle production is on the rise. Consumers, retailers and other parties are asking for better animal welfare. They're questioning the ethics surrounding the dehorning of beef and dairy cattle. 

But what is polledness in a cow or a bull? How can you use polled genetics in your breeding strategy — and be on the forefront of the future demands in the dairy industry? 

In this episode, a Senior Breeding Manager will share his extensive knowledge on polledness and dehorning. The focus is to get you equipped to make the best decisions with polled genetics.

 Guests:
Jakob Lykke Voergaard, Senior Breeding Manager for VikingRed at VikingGenetics

Host:
Hielke Wiersma

Transcript

0:09

Polled genetics is a hot topic in cattle breeding right now. Consumers, retailers and other parties are focusing on animal welfare. Questions are being asked about the need for and the ethics surrounding the dehorning of beef and dairy cattle. But what is polledness in a cow or a bull? How can you use polled genetics in your breeding strategy and be on the forefront of the future demands in the dairy industry? To give you the best advice on polledness and dehorning, I've invited an expert to join me in the studio. Jakob Lykke Voergaard, Senior Breeding Manager for VikingRed at VikingGenetics. This is the BreedCast produced by VikingGenetics. I'm your host Hielke Wiersma. Hello and welcome, Jakob. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here again. I thought we could start by looking at dehorning before we kind of look at the polledness and polled genetics. Tell us what dehorning is. If we're looking on dehorning, it is to remove the horns, the cows have - the two horns. And historically, there are two reason why we're working with dehorning. It's mainly because of safety, but it's safety for the staff, working with the animals. So they're not getting injured by the horns. But it's also for the animals when they're in the barn, especially the freestall barns. So the animal do not hurt each other with the horns because they can really hurt each other a lot with the horn. In the nature. it's not a problem because they have a lot of space, so they can easily get away from animals higher in hierarchy, but in the barn the space is less than the nature. So they need to be dehorned there according to animal welfare and don't hurt each other. So basically it's an effect of domestication, basically. Why has dehorning become a problem for farmers? Dehorning is not a nice job. It is a nasty job to do. And it's also adding pain to the animals. So, from animal welfare perspective, it is not a good thing to do. So for the farmer, it's not a good job. And of course, it's also costing a little bit of money. So if you can get rid of it. Very much appreciated for the farmer. What you're talking about, the animal welfare, what are the consequences of that? The consequences is when you’re dehorning, you are adding pain to the animal. You are burning off the horns. So you are burning the animals. So in that way you're adding pain to the animal. And that's from a welfare perspective, not good. That's also why some countries have very strong regulations about it- that you have to put the calves to sleep - anesthesia - so in that way they do not feel it. And they also have to put painkiller around their horns, but they're still a little bit sore some time after the dehorning. So, animal welfare, it is an issue to dehorn the cows even that we have the benefit of them not getting hurt later in life. It's still a pain you're putting on the animals. And we know that for example in Germany and in organic farms, there's a lot of regulations and push towards at least having a plan in organic farms for using polled genetics and not dehorning. What other countries do we have experiences with in terms of dehorning and polled genetics? If we are looking in history, as you said, it's Germany... A lot of the discussion some years ago, started in Germany where they said that they would put in regulation, they put in for the organic part. They run a lot of the discussion about it and it has spread out to the world. And if we're seeing a New Zealand, the big dairy there where 80% of the milk is being sent, they say that the farmers need to have a plan for polled genetics. They need to work with polled genetics or else they will not pick up the milk. So, in that way, it can cost you money if you don't do it in New Zealand because you’d have to find a new dairy. And if you're looking in other places like in Denmark, for example, it is allowed to dehorn. But the organic for example in Denmark they have a dispensation to get dehorning and a dispensation is very easy to remove. You can do that overnight. You don't have to change the law. So, in that way, in some countries they are slowly moving towards that regulation can easily come. So, the dehorning of beef and dairy cattle is under pressure. Polled genetics are on the rise. Now, let's have a look at how I, as a farmer, can use polled genetics and be proactive about meeting the future requirements and license to produce. Jakob, tell us what polled genetics is. What is polledness? Polledness is, as a matter of fact, a defect so, the cows don't get the horn. But it's what we call a positive defect because it's something that is visible. And so the farmer really wants it. So it's a good thing. So, a positive defect, we can say, and it is that the animals don't have the horns. So that is polledness. So, basically polledness is an effect of inbreeding then? Yeah, you can say that, but there are more kinds of polledness. It started in different places where we have picked it up. But in general it's a trait controlled by one pair of genes. So it's a monogenetic trait we are working with here, even if it's coming from different breeds. So what type of polled genetics are there in cattle breeding then? When we are working with polled genetics, we say that they can be either a heterozygotic polled, single polled or homozygous that is double polled. And to understand that we need to get a little bit back to the basic for the genetics. All animals have two pairs of genes in the chromosomes. And we are getting one gene from the mother and one from the father. And those two genes... to make it very simple here, they are controlling polledness or not- or horned it is. And polledness - that gene is dominant, which is a very big positive thing here. So if the animal just has one gene that is polled, then animals will be polled and don't have any horns. So in that way, if it is heterozygotic, it's only getting one gene, then it's polled. And if to homozygotic, it's what we call double polled. And of course it has no horns, but it also only has the genes for polledness to breed on to the next generation. All right. So what would happen if you breed a homozygous to bull with a non-polled cow? Then what would the offspring be? Yeah, when we're talking about a monogenetic trait, it is very interesting to mixed it up. And if you have a homozygous polled bull, then you have the two polled genes. And we have to go a little bit backward here to say, okay, how is the genetics working. When you have a monogenetic trait, you say that they are normally controlled by one gene and everybody have two genes in a normal chromosome. So they will get one gene from the father and one gene from the mother controlling in this case the polledness phenotypic. So when we having a homozygous polled bull and he will always give a polled gene to his offspring and the dam will give the horned and thereby the offspring will be heterozygotic polled- have one polled gene and one horned gene and phenotypically it will be polled. If we then have the case where the sire is only heterozygous polled then half of the times he would give on the polled gene to the next generation. And half of the time he will give the horned. So if he is mated on a horned cow, 50% of the time the offspring will be polled, 50% of the time it would be horned. Then we having the case where there are two heterozygous polled. So both the dam and the sire is polled with one gene and then it’s a little bit a lottery what you're getting out of it, 25% of the animals would be horned. 25% of the offspring will be homozygous polled having two polled genes and then 50% would be heterozygous polled having one horned and one polled gene. So basically, in that case you'd have two animals that are actually polled both of them that could give a horned offspring. Yes. But you also have to remember here that 75% of the offspring will be polled. All right. So we have a question from one of our listeners that wrote to us on BreedCast.com. And that's Mary from Denmark. And we appreciate that very much.

She asked: 9:34

Can a polled bull still have horns? And why? Because what you said earlier, that if it has the polled gene, it's polled. But can a polled bull still have horns? And why is that? I have to say yes and no to this question. We have some bulls having what we call scurs. They look like horns. Some of our polled bulls of VikingRed they have these, and they can be quite big. These scurs. And then when we take video of them and say it’s a polled bull,

we sometimes get the comment: 10:10

Oh, by the way, you took the wrong bull.

Or: 10:13

what's happening here- you said he was polled? And so on, but scurs is a gene that comes in when we talk about polledness. Scurs is growth looking like horns but they have not attached to the cranium like horns have. So, normally when you grab them you can move them around. They're loose and they grow in different directions. I often see them growing nearly backwards, so it looks like the bull has been running very, very fast and the air pressure has just pushed the horns back. But they can also sit quite close to the cranium. So, you know, as a matter of fact, you cannot test for it, but you can take a picture of it to see if it's grown into the cranium. But scurs is a growth looking like horns. And you only see scurs when the animal is heterozygous polled, meaning having a polled gene and a horned gene because if the cow is horned, then they will get normal horns. If it's homozygous polled, it will be totally polled There will be no horns, no growth there. So, we are only talking about heterozygous here. Yeah, all right. That's very interesting, and thank you to Mary for that question. If you have any other questions that you might want to ask, pop over to the BreedCast.com and put your question there. Let's say that I want to introduce polled genetics to my herd. How do I do that? First of all, you need to start inseminating with bulls that are polled either heterozygous or homozygous because you have to get the gene introduced to the herd. And here even if the bull has scurs, you can use him because he still gives the the polled gene into your herd. And here with scurs, I also need to say that for a bull if he has one gene of scurs he would get this growth. But the cows need to have two of them. So we often see it in the bulls. These scurs, and not so much in the cows, which is very lucky because the farmers are working with the cows. And if you want to introduce polledness in your herd, totally, then you need to use homozygous polled bulls. Then all the offspring will be polled. So that is the fastest way to do it, but it's not always the smartest way to do it that way. But you need to use polled bulls to get it introduced to your herd. All right. So let's look at some of the different breeds. What kind of proportion are available? Polled genetics within different breeds? It's very different between the breeds. And there's also some country variations between it. If we are looking on the beef breed, for example Hereford and Angus, they are very close to all animals being polled there. They've been working with that for many, many years and been very active into it. So they nearly polled all of them. So selling a horned Hereford or Angus today is quite difficult. It's actually kind of an extra thing that you get a horned Hereford bull. Yeah then is the other way around that is not so common. And then if we're looking at other beef breeds they are also doing a lot to get them polled - getting rid of the horned gene. If we're looking into the dairy cows, the Holstein and the VikingRed in the VikingGenetics areas, they are right now buying in 40 to 50% of their bulls. They're buying in right now - the young bulls - they are polled. While the ones they sell semen off now, it’s normally between 20 and 30% of them. So, it's moving fast and for Jersey, they're right now buying in with around 22 to 25% of their polled bulls today. So it's moving fast but I also say that something between the countries, and in Sweden for example, they have done very much in their beef cattle to introduce the polled gene. So they are a little bit in front there compared to many other countries in Europe, and also a country like Germany, where polledness started out to be a big discussion, they have been doing it very much. So, there's a tendency to more German Holstein bulls, for example, are polled compared to America or other countries. So why do you think there is that difference in terms of the progression or the use of polled genetics in different countries? Very much regulation. As I said, it started in Germany where they were afraid that the first law they proposed was that it should not be allowed to dehorn at all. And then a lot of farmers and the AI industry went a bit into panic because they were afraid that they suddenly couldn't dehorn anymore and therefore they need to be polled and breeding takes a long time. Remember that a generation normally takes at least three years. So from you’re starting to introduce polled into a breed and get to a very high proportion of it, it takes many years. So you need to be ahead in breeding. And that's also the reason why we in VikingGenetics have looked very much into it now. There's not a lot of regulation around the world right now, but we need to be ready if it comes in the next ten years. Yeah, and I guess it's, it's also the balance between genetic progress and having that one single gene that you're looking for. Yes. And that's also as I said, it was not always smart to just use homozygous polled bull when you want to introduce it. Because when you're going for a trait, in this case polledness, you need to select for that trait. But that also affects selection on other traits. So it's not possible to select so hard on other things like production, udder health, calving traits, type traits and so on. Meaning that in general, when you're introducing a new trait, the total merit will be lower on these animals and especially when you want them homozygous. Their total merit will be lower, so you will lose on other traits which will have a negative economic effect on your future herd compared to production and udder health and other traits. Yeah. So, it's a long process. You speak to lots of farmers and you're out and about. And you did an article about a farmer that had quite some success with polled genetics. Tell us about that. Yeah, I read a short Facebook story. It was a farmer where the herd manager was dehorning one day, and he wrote on Facebook that it was amazing now that just some years ago they dehorned all calves and they just didn't think about it, but now they were looking on it and they’d just dehorned a big group and half of them was polled and it was amazing how fast it was going and a matter of fact, how nice it was not to dehorn all the calves. So that was a good success. And then there is another farm. They've been working with polledness for many years and he really developed his own tactics where he says, if I have a polled animal, I put a horned bull on to increase the genetic level in it to keep a high genetic level on the polled animals. And then if he has a horned cow, then he uses a polled bull on that. So, in that way he’s breeding on polledness and high total merit at the same time. And that's the breeder of VR Fuzzy P, one of the top polled VikingRed bulls. He’s had a big success because he has this breeding philosophy where he combines a good and high genetic level in total merit and polledness at the same time. Jakob has shared his knowledge and expertize with us on how you can use polled genetics to prevent dehorning in your herd. Now, let's have a look at some of the future trends and technologies related to polledness right now. Jakob, why are consumers and retailers and other parties looking at polledness and dehorning? One of the main reasons is animal welfare. The consumers today, they are looking on more than just the price or the quality of what they buy. They also look into the history of the product they buy. And they look at animal welfare, the environment, the sustainability and so on. And there dehorning is one of the things they are looking at in regards to animal welfare. They don't want the farmer to add extra pain to the animal. And therefore they say that they would like dehorning to stop. And that's also why we are seeing it, especially in organic farming around the world where they're regulating and you need to work with it. That is because they have a higher expectation to the animal welfare in the organic production. So, it is very much consumer driven and giving the license to produce. If we are not moving forward in the cattle industry, trying to get consumers more and more liking our products, saying that it's okay, you can produce under these conditions, then we don't have a future. So, the consumers are driving very much what we do here. How do you think that that will develop for the future? The animal welfare towards the consumer? It will only go one way and that's more and more animal welfare. The wishes from the consumers will be that the animals shall have better conditions and be closer to the natural environment. And here we face a little challenge, because they want the animal to be polled so we don't have to dehorn them, but they still have to be natural. And that is with horn so that is the issue here. But I think, in the long run, the polledness will win because that will definitely be the best for the animal. Yeah. And then again, it's the balance between getting that gene into the population. But animal welfare is other things than only polled. I mean, it can be fertility and health and all these things. We need to balance those. Yes, you're absolutely right that it is a balance of what we're working with. And if we are looking on polledness and putting a lot of selection pressure into that trait, saying that they need to be polled, then we would run into the problem that we cannot select as hard on udder health, general health, calving traits and so on. Meaning that in the long run, we will lose a little bit here, meaning that if we say they need to be polled, then we also have to accept that they maybe need to a little bit more udder health. There needs to be a little bit more animals dying as young and so on, because we cannot select on all things at the same time. So, of course, it has a price. And if we are breeding for polledness, and all the animals get polled, we don't have to dehorn, we will lose a little bit. And then, of course, it's a balance because okay, if we get rid of the dehorning, but maybe 1% extra of the calves die when they are young. What is most animal welfare here? Is that the dehorning where you have a pain for a short time or is that animals are dying instead? So it is a very hard balance. And that's it's a really good question. And it leads me to, you know, like legislation and political pressure and stuff like that. What should they be aware of? Because that's one of the consequences. Let's say that you just say, let's push the polled genetics. But it has consequences. It a very much has consequence. And they need to be smart when they do it. I have seen regulation where they said you need to use polled bulls and some of them even talk about you need to use homozygous polled bulls all the time to ensure that all of the animals will be polled but that will mean losing a lot on the other traits and I strongly recommend that they do not put regulation on the bull level. They should always put it on the offspring level. So saying that the offspring shall be polled or you need to have at least maybe 50% of polled and then increase it over time. So we're not losing too much on the other traits, all the animal welfare traits also, but also they could say that when they're looking at the offspring because if you are having a homozygotic cow, then it doesn't matter what bull you use. The offspring will always be polled. So if you have a homozygotic cow, then there's no need to push in a polled sire. You can use a horned sire, with a very high genetic level for udder health or other traits that you really need to get into your herd. So, therefore it's a lot better to put it on the offspring instead of putting it on the bull. All right. So to summarize, Jakob, from a breeding perspective, what are the three most important things to be aware of when using polled genetics in a dairy or beef herd? The first one is definitely when you select your animals, the bulls to use in your herd, you need to look at the total merit. Don't go too much on compromise. Don't go say it doesn't matter - I only want polled bulls and just pick whatever it is. Look at the total merit level also. That's very important. And the next thing is that you also need to look a bit on inbreeding because in some breeds we still don’t have too many polled lines, they are related. So if you're pushing very hard on polledness, you can run into inbreeding issues in your herd and that will reduce your health, your fertility and so on. And the last thing is when you introduce it in you herd, do it smart. Find a smart way to introduce it. For example, that could combining with the genomic selection and genomic test, then when you test your animal, you also get the polled status of that. And then you could go say, okay, I test all my females, then I use a little bit more sexed semen on the one that is polled, a little bit more beef on the one that is horned maybe, for example. Using it in that way. In this way, you slowly increase your polled level in your herd by using the information you also have from the females instead of just from the bulls. Thanks for joining the BreedCast today. Together with senior breeding manager Jakob Lykke Voergaard, we've looked at the challenges with dehorning in dairy herds and how you can use polled genetics to get better animal welfare and meet the new demands. If you'd like to learn more, please visit VikingGenetics.com. Thank you Jakob Lykke Voergaard for sharing your knowledge and expertize with us. Thank you everyone out there for tuning in. If you have an idea for a topic in cattle breeding or a question like Mary had, please visit BreedCast.com or text us on the VikingGenetics Facebook page. My name is Hielke Wiersma. Please join me for the next episode of the BreedCast about an alternative way of producing milk, which is growing in popularity, seasonal calving.