This month, we profile Gentec Industry and Scientific Advisory Board member, Mike Lohuis.
 
Mike approaches Gentec from the industry perspective provided him as VP Research and Innovation of the Semex Alliance.  Semex is a breeder-based Canadian company that accounts for ~80% of dairy cattle semen in Canada and a substantial share of the beef market. Semex is one of the world's largest exporters of genetics--to more than 80 countries.  
 
At Gentec, we view our success largely based upon longstanding industry collaborations--in the case of Semex, one that predates Gentec itself, having started with a collaboration on applying the first “high density” SNP panel co-developed at UAlberta in 2007. This developed into what is now called an NSERC Alliance project supporting industry/academic collaboration.

Here, Mike discusses the value of the bridging function provided by Gentec in moving technology into the hands of producers. One of the most exciting recent opportunities to emerge as a result of the ability to select “sexed” semen has been determining how to obtain the maximum, most sustainable benefits possible through beef-on-dairy beef production.
 
This is where Semex saw the benefit of collaborating with Gentec: to capitalize on the data, expertise and development of selection indexes needed to investigate and improve beef-on-dairy crosses in terms of how the animals perform relating to health, on pasture, and in the feedlot.  
 
“These are all questions we need to answer. Gentec is one of the organizations that can help us get those answers”.