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Dairy Farming
Are pure Holsteins coming to an end?
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<blockquote data-quote="The Agrarian" data-source="post: 6672463" data-attributes="member: 3656"><p>I've been looking at Holstein catalogues for 30 years. There has never been a time when the top bulls in each catalogue didn't look brilliant. Doesn't mean they turned out that way though. And doesn't alter the crushing fact that the survivability of the breed has plummeted in the last thirty years, with management requirement rising. </p><p></p><p>That's not the fault of the bull or the breed. As it turns out, the traits that you do want, but haven't tried to select or breed for get left behind. For example fertility. If you told a farmer in 1990 that you need a cow that can breed, they'd have said yes of course. But all cows breed surel It's what they do. Well, apparently not if you leave it out of the selection criteria.</p><p></p><p>Progress in traits depends upon how many traits you select for. You have 100% selection pressure available. So the more you divide that up with additional traits, the less progress you can hope to make in each trait. Technically, progress in all of the traits should be quite slow now, as there are so many, and so much progress has already been made in production and type. </p><p></p><p>And one can't help but wonder what we'll look back on in twenty or thirty years time, and kick ourselves for forgetting to include it in the criteria.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="The Agrarian, post: 6672463, member: 3656"] I've been looking at Holstein catalogues for 30 years. There has never been a time when the top bulls in each catalogue didn't look brilliant. Doesn't mean they turned out that way though. And doesn't alter the crushing fact that the survivability of the breed has plummeted in the last thirty years, with management requirement rising. That's not the fault of the bull or the breed. As it turns out, the traits that you do want, but haven't tried to select or breed for get left behind. For example fertility. If you told a farmer in 1990 that you need a cow that can breed, they'd have said yes of course. But all cows breed surel It's what they do. Well, apparently not if you leave it out of the selection criteria. Progress in traits depends upon how many traits you select for. You have 100% selection pressure available. So the more you divide that up with additional traits, the less progress you can hope to make in each trait. Technically, progress in all of the traits should be quite slow now, as there are so many, and so much progress has already been made in production and type. And one can't help but wonder what we'll look back on in twenty or thirty years time, and kick ourselves for forgetting to include it in the criteria. [/QUOTE]
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Are pure Holsteins coming to an end?
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