Cattle genomic innovator, TL Biolabs, announced it has raised a $4 million Seed round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, and including Refactor Capital, Y Combinator, and Josh Buckley.
Although genomic testing has been available for years, it’s widespread or regular use by cost-driven dairy farmers and ranchers has been economically prohibitive. However, TL Biolabs, which was launched in February 2016 and was a graduate of the Y Combinator program in August 2016, has developed a genomic testing service that costs significantly less than traditional options at $15 per animal.
As a fully integrated agriculture-focused operation, TL Biolabs makes its own chips, runs all testing, completes all analysis, and presents the results via TLBi – the company’s cloud-based herd management software, through which a farmer or rancher can track data on every animal from any device at any time, according to the company’s website.
This ability for producers to customize their testing for performance traits, and to gather genetic information regarding the health, productivity, and fertility of their cattle, in turn leads to better-informed herd management decisions and the ability to determine optimum breeding between animals.
“By making the average gain in profit per test greater than the test price, we will empower farmers to make informed breeding and management decisions and positively impact their bottom line,” said Fred Turner, chief executive officer of TL Biolabs.
From Lab to Field
Domestic cattle were the first livestock mammal to have their genome sequenced and analyzed, when in 2009 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that an international consortium of researchers had published the animal’s entire genome. This achievement opened the door to further the application of this knowledge to determine an animal’s immunity, digestion, reproduction, and lactation parameters.
“The bovine HapMap will be a valuable resource and will transform how dairy and beef cattle are bred,” said Richard Gibbs, Ph.D., at Baylor College of Medicine’s Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston when the genome was published. “Genetic tools are already being developed and proving useful to the dairy industry and we predict they will be applied to improve the beef industry. We hope the information will also be used to come up with innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of cattle, such as greenhouse gases released by herds.”
Indicative of the potential growth in application for this technology, Ireland announced at the beginning of last year that it was undertaking the world’s largest cattle genotyping project to date. In a move to improve the country’s cattle herds, the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation has partnered with testing companies, Weatherbys and Eurofins to analyze a million head of cattle over the next two years.
Beef is one of Ireland’s key agricultural industries, and the government has earmarked €52 million (US$55 million) per year to distribute to the 27,000 farmers taking part in the six-year program, equaling to payments of approximately €142.50 (US$151) per hectare.
Noting an expectation that demand for animal protein will continue climbing through 2020, that climate change will continue to challenge producers, and the importance of cattle to its farmers, the government of India has also launched a cattle genomics scheme to rapidly and selectively breed hardy livestock for enhanced, sustainable productivity.
Furthermore, Canada is also conducting the Canadian Cattle Genome Project, designed to sequence breeds in the Canadian cattle herd to build a reference library for future breeding decisions, and to preserve biological data from historic cattle breeds.
By creating a genomic testing system at a price point of $15 per head, TL biolabs has taken this technology out of the laboratory and has placed it in the hands of every dairy farmer and cattle rancher – taking it into the field where it can have a significant effect on an operation’s long-term bottom line.
-Lynda Kiernan
Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to GAI News. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com