The Moos Room™

00;00;11;03 - 00;00;43;28
Brad
And welcome to The Moos Room, Brad, here again today on this wonderful spring. Everything is starting to green up here in western Minnesota. It's getting exciting because I'm excited to get the cows back on pasture and have them out grazing and eating lots of green grass. We've got some interesting studies happening this summer, one looking at agro voltaic and heat stress of cows.

00;00;43;28 - 00;01;07;16
Brad
Again, heat stress is pretty important and I think trying to find ways to reduce heat stress is is always a good thing. Going to be exploring some virtual fencing. Yes, I have purchased $20, virtual fence myself, and I'm going to test it out on some dairy heifers, maybe try it on some lactating cows, see what's going to happen.

00;01;07;18 - 00;01;38;17
Brad
I really don't know. But we're going to start this week training our heifers, about 20 of them to virtual fence. And we have some other things happening. From the genetic standpoint looking at mastitis and parasites of genetic animals. So there's going to be lots happening in the summertime and it's going to get crazy really fast. But one thing I think about a lot, and I've been actually thinking about it from a genetic standpoint, is A2 genetics.

00;01;38;20 - 00;02;10;05
Brad
New bull proofs in the US just came out last week, and I'm always interested in A2 genetics. I have conversations with farmers a lot about A2 genetics and how we can incorporate more A2 genetics. I've heard, from some that some people maybe have an easier time digesting milk from A2 cows than A1 cows. So let's kind of explore a little bit about A2.

00;02;10;05 - 00;02;38;16
Brad
I have genomic tested all of our animals here at our research center for A2 genetics, and we'll talk about what we've seen across time. I've been genotyping for about seven years and how kind of my genotyping has progressed in our A2 genetics. We'll talk a little bit about AI bulls, available in the US and other countries around the world, and see where kind of that A2 really lies.

00;02;38;16 - 00;03;12;11
Brad
So A2 is a big thing that people talk about a lot this past fall, I was at, a dairy in Colorado milking 1500 cows, all A2 the whole herd, all tested A2 going into, A2 milk market for Costco. So specific. A2 so it's quite popular. It's growing. The A2 market is growing. I know here in Minnesota there are some farms that are specifically marketing a2 milk from their cows.

00;03;12;11 - 00;03;39;16
Brad
And I think it's a good thing that we're venturing out in some of these newer kind of niche markets. But I think A2 is more than that. I think A2 is more than that. And it's only going to keep, keep growing. So again, let's talk a little bit about A2 and what is it quick. So milk obviously we know 85% water about 4% fat 3% protein.

00;03;39;19 - 00;04;08;07
Brad
So the protein is where the A2 comes from. It's coming from the beta casein. So in milk we have alpha casein beta casein kappa casein and peptides and amino acids. And that make up the milk protein. The beta casein which is the A1 and A2 is about 30% of that protein. So A2 milk what is it. It's a naturally occurring protein in cows milk.

00;04;08;07 - 00;04;45;04
Brad
It's not a product of genetic engineering. It's actually the A2 is recognized as being the original or the ancestor. Beta casein gene, in modern cattle. And there's only two ways that it can be. It can be A1 or it can be A2. There is no other way to do that. There are some anecdotal and consumer reports that link a2 milk with with improved digestive comfort relative to drinking A1 milk, but the research is certainly limited, and we've maybe done some research on that.

00;04;45;04 - 00;05;13;20
Brad
And we'll kind of go through what that is. So if you think about it from a A2 standpoint, it's beta k. So morphine seven is where it comes in BCM seven. So it's casein morphine. So it's really purported to have opioid like qualities for some people. But this is where we see A1 or A2 kind of at position 67 in the BCM seven region.

00;05;13;28 - 00;05;48;02
Brad
And this really has nothing to do with lactose. Some people may think they're lactose intolerant, but really, they actually probably have a protein intolerance, more so from an A1, A2 versus being actually lactose intolerant. So there's some claim to health effects that if you have, A1 or drink A1 milk, sometimes you can have immune, activation for diabetes, heart disease, autism, schizophrenia.

00;05;48;02 - 00;06;20;12
Brad
Initial studies really could show an association but not really a causation. So higher per capita consumption of A1 protein was observed in countries with higher rates of some of these diseases. There's really a lot of not as as many studies out there. There's been some studies on digestive discomfort in mice and found that mice that drink A1 milk tend to have more gastrointestinal problems.

00;06;20;14 - 00;06;46;24
Brad
If you drink, a2 milk, from a human perspective, there's been some studies and you have reduced intestinal discomfort. You have reduced inflammation in your gut by drinking A2 milk, maybe reduced abdominal pain, improved stool consistency. So there might be some benefits to A1, A2 from a health perspective, but we're not quite sure. Obviously more studies need to be done.

00;06;47;01 - 00;07;17;09
Brad
So what really is A1 and A2. So basically it says A2 is good for health, A1 bad for health. And A2 kind of comes from the ancestors. So a little bit about inheritance and how that works. So each cow has two copies of the beta casein gene, one from her mother, one from her father. And both alleles are expressed.

00;07;17;09 - 00;07;51;05
Brad
So if you get A1 from your father, A1 from the mother, you only produce A1 milk. If you get A1 from a father mother and an A2 from a father or mother, you get A1 and A2 produced an A1. A2 animal is not an A2 cow. It still can produce the A1 protein. If you get a two say from the father and A2 from the mother, you only produce A2 milk.

00;07;51;06 - 00;08;22;15
Brad
It is not a dominant or recessive inherited pattern. It's typical additive genetics. If you have an A1 and A2, you produce both, and I think that's where people get confused a little bit is if you say, oh well, I have an a1, A2 cow, well, that is not A2 genetics only way you can have A2 milk, or what we would certainly call a2 milk in my mind is have an animal that has tested A2, a2.

00;08;22;17 - 00;08;46;23
Brad
So if you think about it from a population level, if you look at the general dairy population, you probably have about 16%, that is A1, A1. So in the end you're really going to get about a third of the cows that are going to produce a2, a2 milk. And we'll talk more about that when we look at some genomic testing results.

00;08;46;23 - 00;09;15;14
Brad
So people always ask me, well where can I get my animals tested? How do I know where can I test them? Well, there's multiple companies that you can, get A2 testing done. Some you can do with standalone testing. Some are actually packaged with genomic testing. If you kind of package it with genomic testing, it's about $5 additional above and beyond, the genomic sample.

00;09;15;14 - 00;09;38;26
Brad
So if you're doing a full genomic test, you might get 40 to $45 to get to A2, plus a whole bunch of other traits that come along with it. But if you want to do a standalone test, there's different places you can do that. UC Davis, who has done A2 testing for a long time, is about $40 per animal.

00;09;38;26 - 00;10;06;12
Brad
I looked at Neogen, which is where I do all of my genomic testing, and that's $16 per animal if you do it standalone. Central Star Co-op is about $14, per per animal for genomic testing. So it really ranges, but there's lots of different places you can look online to see where that is. It's pretty easy. And you can get your cow or your animal tested for for A2.

00;10;06;15 - 00;10;33;09
Brad
One of the questions that I get is how long will it take to get, total A2 herd by just using A2 sires? Well, and we'll talk about my genomic testing here in a little bit, but if you do some calculations to get to 100% A2, it's probably going to take you 20 generations. And that's a long time.

00;10;33;11 - 00;11;05;15
Brad
That's a long time to get just using A2 sires. That's no culling or anything like that. Just using a2, A2 bulls. It will probably take you 20 generations. Now that depends on what the status of your cows are. But if you include cow culling in the mix, where you might call up to 25% of your animals, it will probably take about ten generations to get there from, say, a 45% A2 in your herd.

00;11;05;18 - 00;11;29;03
Brad
If you have 45% A2 ten generations, you'll have a total A2 A to herd with using A2 sires and calling the A1 A1 animals. So this is not a quick fix overnight. It will take a long time to get there, and I think that's one thing that people might not understand is how long it actually takes to get in.

00;11;29;04 - 00;12;00;12
Brad
Total A2 herd. It just takes time. But really you want to test your cows so you know the percentage in your herd. That's probably the biggest thing. So let's talk a little bit about the testing of our herd and how we kind of fare in the genomic testing, and where we're maybe going into the future. So I've tested over 1500 dairy animals in our in our herd over the last seven years.

00;12;00;12 - 00;12;34;16
Brad
So that's actually quite a few. And we've got, you know, crossbred Holsteins and kind of a mix of different crossbreeding groups as well. So if I look at the Holstein cows, where are we on an A2? If you think about it, from an average across all of these 15, hundreds of about 350 Holsteins that I've genotyped, 51% are A28 to 10% are A1, A1.

00;12;34;16 - 00;13;03;09
Brad
So 35 of the 350 animals are still A1, A1. If you look at my graze cross crossbred. So these are Jersey, Normandy and Viking red animals. We're about 56% A2, A2 my Pro Cross. So that's Holstein Mont Bedard and Viking Red. They're about 45% A2. So a little bit less. And these are cross breads obviously. So and I have not really selected a lot.

00;13;03;10 - 00;13;35;00
Brad
At least I wasn't selecting for A2 ten years ago. So this is kind of what's happened in our herd. If I look at a 1964 genetic control herd. So the University of Minnesota, we had this 1964 Holstein herd that's frozen in time. And if I look at those. So I've genotyped 117 of those animals, only 21% are A2, A2, 27% are a1, A1.

00;13;35;00 - 00;14;08;15
Brad
So if you think about it from a genetic standpoint, across time in the Holstein breed, we've been moving towards an A2 A to herd for numerous years. So these are 1960s. This is 60 years ago, and the A1 percentage is much lower today than what it was a long time ago. If I look at probably the highest animals with A2, A2 in our herd that are crossbred, probably Jersey sired animals and Normandy sired animals, and we'll talk about those breeds in a little bit more.

00;14;08;19 - 00;14;38;24
Brad
The only about 40%, so a little bit less than if I look at the Holstein numbers. So I also genotype Holstein animals at our research center here in Morris. But I also genotyped the Holstein cows in Saint Paul at our Saint Paul campus, dairy in Morris. Our A2, A2 is 53% in Saint Paul 43%. So we have a little bit higher A2, a two percentage here in Morris than what they do in Saint Paul.

00;14;38;24 - 00;15;07;07
Brad
So, you know, across time, I haven't really selected a lot, 53% A2, A2. But I wanted to look at how I was kind of making some progress. So I've maybe been a little more conscious about selecting for A2 genetics. And if I look at the calves that were born in the last two years, so 2023, 2024, what was their A2 percentage?

00;15;07;09 - 00;15;37;15
Brad
So I look at we had 54 grazed cross crossbred. So these are Jersey Normandy Viking Red 67% of them were A2 A2. So much better than the total average. The Pro Cross animals 63% are a two A2. I have one Pro Cross crossbred that is A1, A1, but still that's been improving across time as well. So I think I've made some pretty good strides.

00;15;37;15 - 00;16;07;28
Brad
And in our cross breads in increasing the A2 percentage. But we're still only at 63 to 67%. Like I said, remember before many generations and I have not been calling for A1, A1 don't call based on A1. And this is just just using more A2 sires. What about our Holsteins? So our Holstein cows, we've had 27 registered Holstein calves in the last two years 16 our A2, a2 I still have one calf, one calf.

00;16;07;28 - 00;16;35;19
Brad
Out of those 27 was a1, A1. It's a delta who has a1 a2 out of a millington who has a1, a2. So that calf got the A1 from each of its parents. But I'd say we're making pretty good strides based on selecting for A2 genetics in our herd. If I look at bulls. So now let's let's turn our attention to looking at AI bulls and what's available there.

00;16;35;19 - 00;16;59;21
Brad
And how can you select for more A2 genetics. So I downloaded the bull list. So all foreign genomic and active bulls from NAB. So the National Association of Animal Breeders here in the US and looked at numerous breeds. So these are bulls from all over the world. So let's go through the breeds and kind of see what we find.

00;16;59;24 - 00;17;22;15
Brad
So if I look at Ayrshire U.S. it's 14 bulls. And these are the bulls that just have an A2 genetic profile. Only two of them, two of the 14 are a two, 8 to 9 or A1, A2. Three of them are a1, a1, so only 14% are a2, a2. In Canada, if I look at Canadian Ayrshire's, 50% of those bulls are a2, a2.

00;17;22;15 - 00;17;56;25
Brad
So a little bit less from the Ayrshire perspective on A2 genetics. Brown Swiss. If I look at us bulls 58% are a2 a2. However, if you consider the Canadian, Italian and Swiss brown Swiss bulls now we have 86% are A2 A2. So the foreign bulls Canada, Italy and Switzerland are much higher from an A2 perspective. In the brown Swiss breed they had some flack V in there.

00;17;56;25 - 00;18;24;17
Brad
So I know farmers have used flack for in the past and two of the five bulls are A2, A2. So a little bit less from a fleck B perspective. What about Guernsey? That is the shining star in the A2 world. 53 Bulls. All our A2 a to 100% of the Guernsey bulls are A2 A2. So it's a great market for the Guernsey breed.

00;18;24;24 - 00;18;59;13
Brad
All a2 A2. Let's cover the other colored breeds here. If I think about Jersey and us Jersey, 85% are A2, A2. There is still one bull in the Jersey breed in the US that is a1 a1, but 85% A2, A2. Canada is 89% a2 A2 Denmark. So the Danish Jersey Bulls 22 of 26 bulls are a2 a2. So 85% in Denmark and in New Zealand all 15 new Zealand Jersey genetics, at least in the list, were A2, A2.

00;18;59;16 - 00;19;33;11
Brad
So a pretty high percentage of A2 genetics in the Jersey breed all over 85%. Not quite as good as the Guernsey, but 85% is pretty good. Milking Shorthorn one bull out of six was a2 a2, so pretty low percentage from a Milking Shorthorn perspective. Norwegian red some bulls in there 73% were a2 A2 Normandy. If I look at Normandy, the French breed 24 bulls all a2 A2.

00;19;33;11 - 00;20;09;19
Brad
So just like the Guernsey, the Normandy breed shines as well from an A2 a2 perspective. So what about Holstein? Well, if I look at the US bulls Holstein 3105 bulls 41% are A2, A2 which I actually think is gone, maybe a little bit backwards. I didn't look at the top bulls in the breed, but 41% is quite surprised that it's that low from a genetic standpoint, and there's still 3% that are A1, A1 from a Holstein perspective.

00;20;09;19 - 00;20;37;27
Brad
So a little bit lower than what I thought actually, if you look at Canada, Canadian bulls 62% are A2, A2. So a little bit higher in Canada, still 5% Canadian Holstein bulls are a1, A1. But I look at some European countries combined Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy 63% are A2, A2. They have 12% better a1, A1. So much higher in some of the European countries.

00;20;37;27 - 00;21;06;04
Brad
From an a1 A1 perspective. New Zealand, we go down to New Zealand and look at the Friesians. All six of the bulls that were in this list, all a two A2. So again, the Holstein breed maybe a little bit more disappointing from an A2 perspective. And obviously just using random genetics. Like I said, it's going to take a long time, many generations to get to a total a2 a2 herd.

00;21;06;07 - 00;21;41;00
Brad
So let's end talking about a study. So I did a study. We worked with Penn State and genotyped about 2000 Holstein cows. We were interested in how production and fertility and survival compares based on A2 genotypes for animals. So of the 2000 cows that we genotyped, we got 11% that were a1, A1. So remember these are Holstein cows again 43% were a1 A2 and 46% were A2, A2.

00;21;41;00 - 00;22;28;04
Brad
So kind of fits with what we see in some of the others stuff that we've talked about from our herd perspective, from a bull AI perspective, about 40% 40 to 50% are A2, A2. So we compared a lot of different traits and betas for these animals. Animals that were A2, a2 had higher net merit. The animals that were a1 a1 were much, much lower about and not quite half, but a lot lower for genetic merit than the A2 a2 cows that a2 a2 cows had pizzas that were higher for milk production compared to a1 a1 cows.

00;22;28;06 - 00;22;51;24
Brad
We also, if you compare the a1 a2 cows, they're about the same protein, much higher 50% higher from an eight two A2 perspective compared to A1 A1, which is what we would expect. A2 comes is in the protein higher protein in a two A2 cows productive life animals that were A2, A2 had higher productive life Tas compared to a1, A1.

00;22;51;24 - 00;23;18;04
Brad
And we'll talk about that in just a second. We didn't really find much difference in milk production between those animals, maybe a little bit higher protein percentage for a two A2 animal, which you would expect because the A2 is coming from the protein. So a2, a2 animals have a little bit higher protein, but we didn't really see much difference in in milk production, fertility, not much difference.

00;23;18;04 - 00;24;02;01
Brad
Maybe there was a slight increase in first service conception rate for a2 a2 animals compared to a1 a1 days open, no difference. Actually the a1 a1 cows got pregnant much faster than the a2 a2 animals. However, the interesting fact. So this is survival to second lactation. So if you compare all of the cows and they have a first time, did they have a second time 95% of the A2 A2 animals calved or survived the second calving 97% a1, A2 83% of the a1, A1 animals did not survive to second calving.

00;24;02;01 - 00;24;28;18
Brad
So what's going on? Well, I think what was happening is that once these farms got their results back on A2 testing that we provided them, they started calling the A1, A1 animals. So indirectly, I don't think it had anything to do with survivability from a genetic standpoint. It was all human intervention calling to get rid of those A1, A1 animals because these farmers thought it was important.

00;24;28;18 - 00;24;48;14
Brad
So it kind of goes back to you can make progress in A2 genetics by calling those a1, A1 animals much faster. So what did we kind of learn? I think you need to test your cows to know the percentage of A2 in your herd. There's really no other way. You can't assume that you have A2 genetics just because you've been using those bulls.

00;24;48;14 - 00;25;14;08
Brad
In my mind, if you want an A2 herd, all of your animals must be a2 A2 tested. If you think about from a marketing standpoint, a2 milk, most of the herds can allow some less than 5% a1 a2 genetics in there, which in my mind is a little deceiving, but you need to know the percentage of A2 in your herd and you need to select top 8282 bulls.

00;25;14;08 - 00;25;38;19
Brad
I went back and looked at the top Holstein bull and in the US right now as Gino source captain from St genetics, he is a2 A2 so the type Holstein bull a2 a2. Quite possibly you could use A2 as a benefit of sire selection instead of using it as the only selection criteria. So if you pick your top bulls then you can choose which ones are A2, a2.

00;25;38;19 - 00;26;04;03
Brad
From there you probably still have some top bulls that are a1, A2. I think really the consumers are going to drive the demand for a2 milk. If you think about it from a marketing standpoint and to consumers. I just looked you could you can go to Costco and get a2 milk. It's about $8.50 a gallon is what it kind of settles in it.

00;26;04;06 - 00;26;26;08
Brad
And consumers are willing to pay for this. So I think it's a benefit in the dairy world to have these options for consumers if they want to. I think obviously there's some research that has shown that it does better from a digestibility standpoint, but I think that's what's really going to drive it is the consumer demand. I think firms are choosing to use A2 genetics.

00;26;26;10 - 00;26;47;08
Brad
It's just going to take a long time with breeding to get there. Unless you're going to be calling more animals. So we're going to still select for A2 in our herd. Try and increase that percentage. Like I said, we've been increasing still only at 65%. So we've got a long ways to go in our herd as well. Unless I call and I'm not calling on A1, A1.

00;26;47;10 - 00;27;10;18
Brad
So it just takes time. And I think we need to realize that. So with that, I think we'll end there today. And if you have any comments, questions or scathing rebuttals, contact us at the Moose Room. That's MOS R from at Umkc Edu or find us on the web at U of M extension. Live stock or in Rock dairy.

00;27;10;20 - 00;27;15;00
Brad
Have a good day. Bye.