• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.162-167
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• 2009

Reproductive abilities in beef cattle herds are receiving increased attention due to recent rises in production costs. To achieve more efficient management, a measure of fertility, namely the number of calves produced at k yr of age ($NCP_k$), was developed and its genetic parameters were estimated from Japanese Black cows by restricted maximum likelihood procedures. The k examined were distributed from 2 to 10 yr of age and $NCP_2$ averaged 1.077 calves over 43,536 cows. The averages increased by approximately 0.9 calf with each additional 1 yr increment in k. Heritabilities of $NCP_k$ were estimated to be low ranging from 0.083 to 0.162, which seemingly suggested a difficulty of genetic improvement. However, large genetic variation and high accuracy were observed in predicted breeding values of $NCP_k$. For example, the breeding values of $NCP_7$ were predicted between -0.303 and +0.213 with average accuracy of 0.607 for cows with observations. Genetic correlations among different k were generally high and positive (0.474 to 0.995). The analyses showed that at least $NCP_4$ was required to maintain the genetic correlations of 0.8 or higher with subsequent $NCP_k$. Also $NCP_5$ maintained the genetic correlations of 0.9 or higher with subsequent $NCP_k$ The results suggested some possibilities for $NCP_k$ to be a selection criterion considering its genetic variation, high accuracy and consistency with subsequent performance.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제31권7호
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• pp.992-1006
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• 2018

Beef production extends over almost half of Australia, with about 47,000 cattle producers that contribute about 20% ($A12.7 billion gross value of production) of the total value of farm production in Australia. Australia is one of the world's most efficient producers of cattle and was the world's third largest beef exporter in 2016. The Australian beef industry had 25 million head of cattle in 2016-17, with a national beef breeding herd of 11.5 million head. Australian beef production includes pasture-based cow-calf systems, a backgrounding or grow-out period on pasture, and feedlot or pasture finishing. Feedlot finishing has assumed more importance in recent years to assure the eating quality of beef entering the relatively small Australian domestic market, and to enhance the supply of higher value beef for export markets. Maintenance of Australia's preferred status as a quality assured supplier of high value beef produced under environmentally sustainable systems from 'disease-free' cattle is of highest importance. Stringent livestock and meat quality regulations and quality assurance systems, and productivity growth and efficiency across the supply chain to ensure price competiveness, are crucial for continued export market growth in the face of increasing competition. Major industry issues, that also represent research, development and adoption priorities and opportunities for the Australian beef industry have been captured within exhaustive strategic planning processes by the red meat and beef industries. At the broadest level, these issues include consumer and industry support, market growth and diversification, supply chain efficiency, productivity and profitability, environmental sustainability, and animal health and welfare. This review provides an overview of the Australian beef industry including current market trends and future prospects, and major issues and opportunities for the continued growth, development and profitability of the industry.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.592-596
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• 2012

The simple method of evaluating highly marbled beef was examined by image analysis. The images of the cross section at the 6 to 7th rib were obtained from 82 carcasses of Wagyu cattle. By using an overall trace method, the surrounding edges of the longissimus thoracis and three muscles were traced automatically and manually with image analysis. In a spot method, 3 to 5 locations (2.5 or 3.0 cm in diameter) for each muscle were rapidly selected with no manual trace. The images were flattened, binarized, and the ratio of fat area to muscle area was determined. The correlation coefficients for marbling between different muscles, and between the overall trace and the spot methods were 0.55 to 0.81 between different muscles and 0.89 to 0.97, respectively. These results suggested that the simple spot method is speedy and almost as useful as the overall trace method as a measuring technique for beef marbling in loin muscles, especially for highly marbled beef.

• 농업과학연구
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.321-330
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• 2023

The genetic diversity of three Hanwoo populations was analyzed using 11 microsatellite (MS) markers for the traceability of Hanwoo beef in this study. A total of 1,099 Hanwoo cattle from two populations (694 line-breeding and 405 general Hanwoo) at the Hanwoo Research Institute (HRI) of the National Institute of Animal Science and 1,171 Korean proven bulls (KPNs) were used for the analysis. Specific alleles of four markers (ETH10, INRA23, TGLA122, and TGLA227) were identified only in the line-breeding population, although at a low allele frequency (0.001 - 0.02). The genetic distance (Nei's D) between line-breeding Hanwoo and KPN was the greatest (0.064), whereas general Hanwoo and KPN were relatively close genetically (0.02); the distance between line-breeding and general Hanwoo was found to be 0.054. These results are expected because the HRI has performed closed breeding via selecting its line-breeding sires without utilizing KPN since 2009. Therefore, the line-breeding Hanwoo population of HRI show different genetic diversity from the KPN population, based on the 11 MS markers. The results of this study provide basic data for securing the genetic diversity of Hanwoo cattle and utilizing line-breeding Hanwoo cattle from the HRI.

• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
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• 제62권3호
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• pp.293-305
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• 2020

The difference in the breeding programs and population history may have diversely shaped the genomes of Korean native cattle breeds. In the absence of phenotypic data, comparisons of breeds that have been subjected to different selective pressures can aid to identify genomic regions and genes controlling qualitative and complex traits. In this study to decipher genetic variation and identify evidence of divergent selection, 3 Korean cattle breeds were genotyped using the recently developed high-density GeneSeek Genomic Profiler F250 (GGP-F250) array. The three Korean cattle breeds clustered according to their coat color phenotypes and breeding programs. The Heugu breed reliably showed smaller effective population size at all generations considered. Across the autosomal chromosomes, 113 and 83 annotated genes were identified from Hanwoo-Chikso and Hanwoo-Heugu comparisons, respectively of which 16 genes were shared between the two pairwise comparisons. The most important signals of selection were detected on bovine chromosomes 14 (24.39-25.13 Mb) and 18 (13.34-15.07 Mb), containing genes related to body size, and coat color (XKR4, LYN, PLAG1, SDR16C5, TMEM68, CDH15, MC1R, and GALNS). Some of the candidate genes are also associated with meat quality traits (ACSF3, EIF2B1, BANP, APCDD1, and GALM) and harbor quantitative trait locus (QTL) for beef production traits. Further functional analysis revealed that the candidate genes (DBI, ACSF3, HINT2, GBA2, AGPAT5, SCAP, ELP6, APOB, and RBL1) were involved in gene ontology (GO) terms relevant to meat quality including fatty acid oxidation, biosynthesis, and lipid storage. Candidate genes previously known to affect beef production and quality traits could be used in the beef cattle selection strategies.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제31권7호
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• pp.951-960
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• 2018

Hanwoo cattle are an important food source in Korea and their supply can have a major impact on meat availability for Korean consumers. The Hanwoo population was 1.8 million head in 2005 and gradually increased to 2.6 million in 2015. Per capita beef consumption has also increased, to 11.6 kg per year in 2015, and is expected to continue to increase. Because intramuscular fat percentage is a critical contributor to meat quality, Hanwoo cattle are fed a high-energy corn-based diet for long fattening periods. Long fed diet causes significant alterations in fat percentage in the loin muscle and other areas of the carcass. However, these long feeding periods increase feeding costs and beef prices. Recently, there has been increased Korean consumer demand for lean beef which has less fat, but is tender and priced more reasonably. These consumer demands on the Korean beef industry are driving differing beef production systems and also changes to the beef grading methodology. Korean government has made a significant investment to select bulls with favorable production traits using progeny testing. Progeny tested bull semen has been disseminated to all Hanwoo farmers. A beef traceability system has been employed for all cattle breeds in Korea since 2009. Hanwoo cattle are ear-marked with a 12-digit identification number from birth to slaughter. This number allows traceability of the management history of individual cattle, and also provides information to consumers. Traceability including management information such as herd, farm, year of birth, and carcass data can determine estimated breeding values of Hanwoo. For a sustainable Hanwoo industry, research scientists in Korea have attempted to develop feeds for efficient fattening periods and precision feeding systems based on genetic information for Hanwoo cattle. These initiatives aim to Korean consumer demands for beef and provide more precision management in beef production in Korea.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.843-845
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• 1999

To evaluate direct and maternal effects on calf market weight (CMW) and carcass weight (CW) in Japanese Black cattle under an animal model, genetic parameters were estimated using 51,320 records of CMW and 11,944 records of CW, respectively. Direct and maternal heritabilities, and direct-maternal genetic correlation were estimated to be 0.22, 0.06 and 0.27 for CMW, and 0.23, 0.12 and -0.40 for CW, respectively. Correlation coefficient between maternal breeding values for CMW and CW was 0.521 for 157 sires appeared in both CMW and CW data sets. These results suggest that the maternal genetic effect on pre-weaning growth carries over to carcass weight. Maternal breeding values for both calf market weight and carcass weight could be used as the indicator traits of maternal ability in Japanese Black cattle.

• 한국축산식품학회지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.310-318
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• 2004

Eating quality is a reflection of consumer satisfaction, while beef quality grade describes carcass characteristics of chiller assessment which are largely influenced by production systems including breeding and feeding schemes. On the other hand, it should be emphasized that high palatability of beef is a function of production and processing components including breed, nutrition, animal handling, post-slaughter intervention and cookery. Numerous efforts have been made by Korean beef industry and research institutes to deliver high quality beef with which domestic beef consumers are satisfied. However, majority of studies have tended to focus on improvement of intramuscular fat content with little attention on its effect on consumer-based eating quality. Furthermore, there is very limited accessible information(if any) on relative importance of eating characteristics (eg, tenderness, juiciness and flavor intensity) to consumer satisfactory rate and palatability grade. On this regard, our recent results indicated, for example, that when m. longissimus was prepared by a thin-slice style BBQ, relative weightings of tenderness, juiciness and flavor intensity for consumer satisfactory rate were 0.4, 0.35 and 0.25, respectively. When eating quality was graded into 4 groups by a sum of tenderness, juiciness and flavor intensity after multiplying these coefficients, consumers responded that the palatability score for high quality beef should be higher than 79 points. Based on our recent experiments, the current report is intended to highlight relative importance of eating quality characteristics on consumer satisfactory rate, and threshold of eating quality grade. In addition, post-slaughter intervention techniques such as electrical stimulation and tenderstretch are given as examples of critical control points of palatability assurance program of Hanwoo beef.

• 대한수의학회지
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.143-151
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• 1992

Sixty Four fresh and 142 frozen embryos of dairy cattle were transferred to synchronized dairy, beef or Korean Native Cattle nonsurgically at National Animal Breeding Institute from 1985 to 1990. The results obtained were as follows ; 1. The pregnancy rate of fresh embryos(39.1%) was higher than that of frozen embryos(32.4%) and average pregnancy rate was 34.5%. 2. The pregnancy rate of grade 1 embryos was higher than that of grade 2 embryos for both fresh(41.3% vs 33.3%) and frozen embryos(35.4% vs 25.6%). 3. The pregnancy rate according to development stage of fresh embryos was increased with maturity as 29.2%, 33.3%, 50.0% and 54.5% for morula, early blastocyst, blastocyst and expanded blastocyst, respectively. For frozen embryos, the pregnancy rate of blastocyst(44.4%) was higher than those of morula(31.3%) and early blastocyst(28.0%). 4. The pregnancy rate according go recipient-donor synchrony for fresh embryos was higher when the recipients exhibited estrus 1 day earlier than the donors(43.8%) than when the recipients exhibited estrus 1 day later than the donors(38.1%) or when the recipients and donors exhibited estrus at the same time(37.0%). For forzen embryos, the pregnancy rate was decreased when the recipients and donors exhibited estrus at the same time(37.9%), when the recipients exhibited estrus 1 day later than the donors(32.0%) and when the recipients exhibited estrus 1 day earlier than the donors(23.5%), in sequence. 5. The pregnancy rate of heifers was higher than that of cows for both fresh(50.5% vs 37.9%) and frozen embryos(39.7% vs 25.7%). 6. The pregnancy rate according to recipient breed for fresh embryos was higher in dairy cattle(42.1%) and beef cattle(40.%) than in Korean Native Cattle(33.3%). For frozen embryos, the pregnancy rate was decreased beef cattle(39.1%), dairy cattle(30.3%) and Korean Native Cattle(14.3%), in sequence. 7. The pregnancy rate according to equilibrium steps of glycerol and freezing rate was higher when transferred after 3-steps equilibrium and freezing by the rate of $0.3^{\circ}C$/min from $-6^{\circ}C$ to $-35^{\circ}C$ and $0.1^{\circ}C$/min to $-38^{\circ}C$(39.4%) than when transferred after 6-steps equilibrium and freezing by the rate of $0.5^{\circ}C/min$ from $-6^{\circ}C$ to $-30^{\circ}C$(30.3%).

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.533-545
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• 2014

경북지역의 한우농가를 대상으로 한우 사육실태와 육종개량에 대한 농가들의 인식도를 조사 분석하여, 앞으로 사육 기술지도와 한우개량 방향을 개선하는데 기초자료로 이용하고자 설문조사하여 분석한 결과는 다음과 같다. 후보번식우 선발은 '외모, 체형, 혈통등록우' (39.0%)를 고려하여 선발하였으며, 번식우의 종부방법은 '계획교배를 통한 인공수정' (38.6%)을 실시하고 있어 가장 높게 나타났다. 비육밑소 구입시 외관상 가장 관심을 두는 부분은 '체장' (40.7%)부분으로 나타났고, 비육 밑소의 거세는 '생후 6~7개월'이 가장 많이 실시하였고, 한우고급육 생산을 위하여 '고급육생산 프로그램에 준하여 80% 이상 맞춰준다' (51.7%)고 하였다. 그러나 농가들은 비육출하 월령은 '생후 28개월' (35.2%)이 가장 경제적일 것이라고 생각하고 있었다. 이러한 결과는 조사항목에 따라 다소 차이가 있긴 하지만 대체로 조사대상자의 일반적 특성에 따라 학력, 연령, 직업, 가족 노동력에 따라 유의수준 0.05에서 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 있었다. 그러나 비육 후 출하 시에 육질 1+등급 이상 출현율은 '출하두수의 30% 정도' (22.1%)라고 응답하여 가장 높았지만, 조사대상자의 알반적 특성 간에는 유의한 차이가 나타나지 않았다.