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Breeding / Calving Issues
Genotype and Phenotype
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<blockquote data-quote="regolith" data-source="post: 1000951" data-attributes="member: 9267"><p>Robert: I think as cattle producers most of us are working with only 50% of the genetics. Unless you have a closed herd and are raising your own bulls the incoming genetics have not been tested under your *specific* environment.</p><p>Which is where this discussion starts, how to determine a way to select the genetics that will suit your wants/needs/environment/cattle.</p><p>Now my observation thus far is that survival of the fittest is a nice theory but doesn't work in practise as well as you would expect. I don't know if that is because my observations are of herds that can only select 50% (the female line) that way or if the environment is changing over time or some other factor.</p><p>One of the key traits is fertility. In the NZ dairy industry we have seasonal calving cows with daughters usually only retained from cows mated to AI in the first three - four weeks of the calving season. Yet fertility is getting worse over time. The local semen sales rep says farmers aren't feeding them enough to get pregnant - yet cow feeding has improved in that time, and every farmer who's been in the business long enough will tell you that thirty years ago cows got in-calf far better than they do now. That is true also in herds that cull all the opens and don't use cidrs or favour the younger/skinnier/slower cycling cows to help them get back in calf.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="regolith, post: 1000951, member: 9267"] Robert: I think as cattle producers most of us are working with only 50% of the genetics. Unless you have a closed herd and are raising your own bulls the incoming genetics have not been tested under your *specific* environment. Which is where this discussion starts, how to determine a way to select the genetics that will suit your wants/needs/environment/cattle. Now my observation thus far is that survival of the fittest is a nice theory but doesn't work in practise as well as you would expect. I don't know if that is because my observations are of herds that can only select 50% (the female line) that way or if the environment is changing over time or some other factor. One of the key traits is fertility. In the NZ dairy industry we have seasonal calving cows with daughters usually only retained from cows mated to AI in the first three - four weeks of the calving season. Yet fertility is getting worse over time. The local semen sales rep says farmers aren't feeding them enough to get pregnant - yet cow feeding has improved in that time, and every farmer who's been in the business long enough will tell you that thirty years ago cows got in-calf far better than they do now. That is true also in herds that cull all the opens and don't use cidrs or favour the younger/skinnier/slower cycling cows to help them get back in calf. [/QUOTE]
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