This article offers information on the present status of goat populations and their productivity. The overview discusses number of goats in different parts of the world as well as the top countries having goats. The article also reviews the status of goat milk and meat production over the globe. In addition, breeding objectives and genetic improvement programs for milk and meat are discussed gi...

The objectives were to characterize repeat breeding in dairy cows, including reproductive performance and risk factors. Data from 613 Holstein Friesian cows in nine dairy herds across Japan were enrolled. A repeat breeder was defined as a cow that did not become pregnant after three inseminations, despite no clinically detectable reproductive disorders. In contrast, cows that became pregnant wi...

A successful beef enterprise is contingent upon the integrated management of genetics, nutrition, health, marketing, and finances. From a genetic perspective, the industry has worked hard to identify and develop prediction tools (EPDs) for a large number of economically important traits. These EPD tools have been very effective in changing the genetic merit of beef breeds, and as a result, many...

Analysis of cultivar by environment (C E) interaction can improve efficiency of crop breeding efforts. Variety selection and recommendation based on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield testing trials could possibly benefit from this type of analysis as well. The objectives of the present work were to evaluate methods to identify relevant testing environments and improve the predictive value of d...

39 Introduction Within Nebraska, the Tallgrass Prairie Ecoregion occupies the approximate eastern one–third of the state and was historically characterized by extensive grassland habitats with scattered areas of upland deciduous forests and savannas, and lowland prairie or deciduous forests along riparian drainages (Kaul et al. 2011, Schneider et al. 2011). A nearly complete conversion of tallg...

The objective of this review is to promote discussion on some of the key issues we consider to be involved in successful long-term genetic improvement of corn for drought tolerance. Many of the concepts have been discussed elsewhere for different crops, traits and different breeding targets. Here we focus on how to organize a comprehensive effort to enable breeding for drought tolerance in a he...

Genomic selection (GS) as theoretically introduced by Meuwissen et al. (2001) has been successfully implemented worldwide in dairy cattle breeding programs reflecting large populations, i.e., Holsteins, Fleckvieh, Jersey, and Brown Swiss, and has revolutionized conventional breeding schemes. Revolution of dairy cattle breeding programs via GS was the logical consequence due to the obvious possi...

The main objective for plant breeding is to increase genetic diversity. Mutation induction is a method to increase genetic diversity associated with selection, recombination, or a combination of these approaches in plant breeding. The present research was aimed to compare efficacy of different doses of Gamma rays (150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 Gy and zero dose control) on the sesame morphological ...

Extensive genetic progress has been achieved in dairy cattle populations on many traits of economic importance because of efficient breeding programmes. Success of these programmes has relied on progeny testing of the best young males to accurately assess their genetic merit and hence their potential for breeding. Over the last few years, the integration of dense genomic information into statis...

Background and Objectives: Cattle dermatophytosis (syn. cattle ringworm), an important skin infection, has received major consideration not only for economical losses in the animal breeding industry but also in regards to its zoonotic transmission to humans. For effective control measures, it is important to determine the disease prevalence in cattle herds. Materials and Methods: To determine r...