The GeneMark Kit

The Whole Herd Kit

What information do you need to record at calving?

• Record the calving date of the cow

• Record the calf birth date

• Identify the calf (purchased or newborn) with it’s intended unique identifier, e.g. ABCD-06-2 (‘ABCD’ owners code, ‘06’ year, ‘2’ tag number)

How soon after calving can the calf be sampled?

• Sampling can take place at any time

• From the farmers point of view, DNA profiling in-calf cows prior to calving, and providing DNA samples of calves to GeneMark as close to the end of calving as possible will aid in speeding up the results turnaround process.

Profiling the herd (dams) is a one-off exercise. When you continue using Whole Herd in subsequent years, you need only test the calves and any bought-in animals.

The Individual Animal Kit

Individual Animal testing options

• Every animal sample that is submitted for Individual Animal testing is DNA profiled.

• GeneMark also holds the DNA profiles of AB sires in a DNA database (library). This makes the process of matching for parentage easier as profiles are easily accessed.

• If the sire or dam profile is not the DNA database, you will need to provide a DNA sample of that animal to complete the matching process.