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Connie McFarlane

Connie McFarlane

myDNA Programme Manager at CRV New Zealand, driving genetic gain in dairy herds through DNA testing and genomics.

Aug 6, 2026

2:23
Can you, first of all, I thought it would be really good to set the scene with a bit of a 101 on what exactly is DNA testing and how it goes, is carried out.
2:34
Yeah, so in calves, we have these all-flex calf packs, which comes with the birth ID tag, the EID, and the TSU all-in-one.
2:43
So it makes it nice and easy for farmers to go out and sample their calves as they come in, as they're tagging them.
2:49
All it is, is just a little ear notch out of the ear and then it just goes into a little tube and that is just sent directly to our lab at Genomes.
2:58
Generally, farmers will keep all of their calves TSUs until the end and then seed them all in one batch.
3:05
Some bigger farmers choose to send them in multiple batches just to get some answers a bit earlier on.
3:11
But yeah, all of our DNA samples go down to genomes in Mosgiel and that's where they start to extract the DNA and then start genotyping it with some pretty fancy machines.
3:51
exactly, what's a TSU, just to jump in there and ask you that?

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