Genetic defects

[novaman]

A good cow lives for 15 years. If you have a 100 Angus cows, you have ~$110,000 invested out there and some registered herds can have many times that. It is asking an awful lot to expect that guy to do blood work on his whole herd and then cull 10-80% of them for a genetic defect he likely has never seen and in the case of FCS isn't even lethal.

Since the other thread got locked I started this one to further the discussion. I never suggested that people start culling their herds. I suggest the problem animals be eliminated ASAP. They could keep those cows and be certain to breed to a non-carrier bull. The offspring would have to be terminal and the cows eventually culled out of the herd to "clean up" the defect genes. I don't understand why everybody jumps to the conclusion that a whole herd or at least most of a herd has to be removed. This was the line of thinking back in the 50's when dwarfism was an issue. They eliminated many animals with genetics that were very good at the time. You can work around genetic defects without eliminated whole lines of animals.

 

[Brandonm22]

The problem here is that the most affected herds (ie Reg. Angus cowherds) are seedstock producers. I am sure a lot of activity is going on behind the scenes; but going from selling reg. bulls and reg. heifers to selling terminal calves is an income hit. That is why the AAA got the full fledged revolution against their original genetic defects policy.

 

[giftedcowboy]

Hmmmmm......A Genetic defect in a herd will cost you one way or another....either in sales now or when the commercial cowman stops buying your cattle.... I think the hush hush that is going on around is going to bite some people big time in the future....you either bite the bullet and take care of it now or have it bite you right in the butt later....

 

[Brandonm22]

Exactly. I was FOR the original policy put out by the AAA and praised them then for being a whole lot more proactive than Hereford with IE or Shorthorn with TH and PHA. A lot of short term pain for longterm gain. Apparently a lot of Angus breeders have a much shorter time horizen that they want to focus on. They apparently still want to be able to sell registered bulls that ARE carriers and continue to register carrier heifers. I understand that this month's mortgage has to be paid and generally this is an old man's game. Many/most? don't want to take that financial hit in the short term and aren't that worried about propogating a defect deeper into the commercial cow herd.