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ARS Home » Plains Area » Clay Center, Nebraska » U.S. Meat Animal Research Center » Genetics and Animal Breeding » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390995
Research Project: Developing a Systems Biology Approach to Enhance Efficiency and Sustainability of Beef and Lamb Production

Location: Genetics and Animal Breeding

Title: iGENDEC: A web-based decision support tool for economic index construction

Author
item SPANGLER, MATTHEW - University Of Nebraska
item GOLDEN, BRUCE - Theta Solutions, Llc
item NEWMAN, SCOTT - Genus
item Kuehn, Larry
item Snelling, Warren
item Thallman, Richard - Mark
item WEABER, ROBERT - Kansas State University

Submitted to: World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/2/2023
Publication Date: 7/3/2023
Citation: Spangler, M.L., Golden, B.L., Newman, S., Kuehn, L.A., Snelling, W.M., Thallman, R.M., Weaber, R.L. 2023. iGENDEC: A web-based decision support tool for economic index construction [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the World Congress of Genetics Applied in Livestock Production. Session 51. p. 53-54.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Economic selection indexes are the preferred method of practicing multiple trait selection. In the U.S., the majority of beef breed associations that have genetic evaluations provide generalized indexes. However, utilization of these tools has been less than is desired. IGENDEC, a web-based platform underpinned by a stochastic simulation, was written in the GO programming language, and was developed to enable the construction of user-specific economic selection indexes. The platform made use of user-specified breeding objectives, breeding systems, costs, returns, and phenotypic means. Interface level output included index weights and graphical representation of relative emphasis and Pearson correlations between the custom index and component trait expected progeny differences (EPD). The system has undergone beta testing and source code was placed in a publicly available repository.