Cow‐calf profitability and leptin genotyping
研究了瘦素基因突变对母牛-小牛生产盈利性的影响，发现该突变与小牛断奶重和母牛生产寿命相关，模拟表明利用该信息可提高利润。
Abstract Profitability of cow‐calf production is determined largely by market prices, calf weaning weights, and cow productive life. While producers individually have no effect on prices, weaning weights and productive life have genetic influences and hence can be altered by selection programs implemented by producers. We investigate the impact of a mutation in the leptin gene (exon 2; single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] 305) on cow‐calf profitability. Prior research shows that this mutation has effects on performance and traits of fed cattle and milk production in dairy cows. Using data from a teaching‐research herd, we find that it is also associated with calf weaning weights and cow productive life. A bio‐economic stochastic simulation demonstrates that the mutation has statistically positive impacts on profits, suggesting that producers can profitably make use of this information.