Cow family dilution

[blacksnake]

I know a lot of emphasis is placed upon cow families but isn’t there a lot of dilution of the traits of a cow family over time. Unless someone is linebreeding I would think the use of different bulls over several generations would dilute a lot of the traits of the cow family. I would like to hear other views on this since I am by no means an expert in this area.

 

[Ebenezer]

Do a study on mitochondrial DNA: It only comes from the female.

But a diluted cow line is merely a naming of cattle each year rather than a sustained line/family. If you like a cow, bred her back to her sons and find out if you are assuming right or wrong. The industry focuses mainly on the sires as the semen is easy to collect, promote and sell. But the cows are the real make or break on the profit end.

 

[Son of Butch]

The industry focuses mainly on the sires as the semen is easy to collect, promote and sell.

And a bull can sire thousands of offspring which makes determining the influence of their strengths and weaknesses easier.

 

[cbcr]

We often talk about "cow families", and with that it seems that some cow families are strong performers generation after generation.

Sometimes you see that in some cow families the daughters are very good performers but sons out of the same cows don't transmit as well.

It is hard to find a cow or cow family where sons and daughters are all good!

 

[Ebenezer]

The industry focuses mainly on the sires as the semen is easy to collect, promote and sell.

And a bull can sire thousands of offspring which makes determining the influence of their strengths and weaknesses easier.

But he does not transmit mitochondrial DNA and most AI bulls get used in line crossing so that the proof is fuzzy at best. Unless you just like numbers. The question was on the cow family.