Genetics and Breeding

mfceiling

I'm an interested lurker here and grew up working on neighbours farms but Dublin has me ruined now!!

Anyway, from watching various farming programmes...a year on the farm, rare breed etc, it got me thinking about how much better animals must be getting now. Selecting the best animals to breed and choosing the best eggs to implant or matching better animals to weaker ones must be improving the bloodlines in nearly every farm.

Is that the experience of anyone here or do you still see "poor" animals at the mart or be disappointed at any of your newborn stock?
Or are you much happier now that you can breed bigger, stronger better animals?

Limestone Cowboy

mfceiling wrote: »

I'm an interested lurker here and grew up working on neighbours farms but Dublin has me ruined now!!

Anyway, from watching various farming programmes...a year on the farm, rare breed etc, it got me thinking about how much better animals must be getting now. Selecting the best animals to breed and choosing the best eggs to implant or matching better animals to weaker ones must be improving the bloodlines in nearly every farm.

Is that the experience of anyone here or do you still see "poor" animals at the mart or be disappointed at any of your newborn stock?
Or are you much happier now that you can breed bigger, stronger better animals?

It's always the aim here to try and improve quality generation on generation not that it always works. There's no sure thing in breeding. Some heifers I had great expectations of as cows disappointed greatly and some that I wouldn't have had much value in turned out to be great breeding cows without being the best to look at themselves.

Floki

mfceiling wrote: »

I'm an interested lurker here and grew up working on neighbours farms but Dublin has me ruined now!!

Anyway, from watching various farming programmes...a year on the farm, rare breed etc, it got me thinking about how much better animals must be getting now. Selecting the best animals to breed and choosing the best eggs to implant or matching better animals to weaker ones must be improving the bloodlines in nearly every farm.

Is that the experience of anyone here or do you still see "poor" animals at the mart or be disappointed at any of your newborn stock?
Or are you much happier now that you can breed bigger, stronger better animals?

There was a time before Artificial Insemination ( and improved roads and transport) when there was very localized breeding of cattle, sheep, pigs going on resulting in different breeds for different areas and bred for that particular environment.

Ai and improved transport led to farmers picking sires and different breeds that that farmer perceived to make them more money.
Beef farming went from British breeds ( Angus, Hereford, Shorthorn) to bigger heavier Continentals (Charolais, Limousin, Belgian Blue).
Then Bse happened and the famous remark from our Minister of Ag about farming elephants. The consumer and Pr industry looked back to the past for salvation and grass fed beef. The solution was Angus and Hereford packaged beef
on the supermarket shelves.

(That's a very simple and crude explanation of beef breeding from a dairyman).

patsy_mccabe

The big emphasis recently has been on 'breeding for profit'. Before this it was all about breeding for the best sale price. Now fancy computers try to work out the cost of producing or maintaining that animal based solely on its genetics. World leading stuff, but considered a load of bullsh1t by some. I've a foot in each camp.:D

Mooooo

I can't remember the programme but there was one of the history of aa in Scotland. At one point to illustrate the difference it showed the winners of shows in pictures standing next to their handlers in quick succession over the last 50 years. And the difference in size every number of years was gas, they went from 4 ft to near on 6 ft and back down again a number of times in that period

Edit, autocorrect and the dictionary on Samsung is ****e

The man in red and black

Mooooo wrote: »

I can't remember the programme but there was one of the history of aa in Scotland. At one point to illustrate the difference it showed the winners of shows in pictures standing next to their handlers in quick succession over the last 50 years. And the difference in size every number of years was gas, they went from 4 ft to near on 6 ft and back down again a number of times in that period

Edit, autocorrect and the dictionary on Samsung is ****e

Are you sure it wasn't different height people standing next to stock? My grandfather was 6'7" and apparently if he was ever trying to sell a horse(Farm horses back in the 50-70's nothing fancy) he would give someone short (or shorter at least) a tip to lead the horse instead. So my father tells me anyway!

Floki

The man in red and black wrote: »

Are you sure it wasn't different height people standing next to stock? My grandfather was 6'7" and apparently if he was ever trying to sell a horse(Farm horses back in the 50-70's nothing fancy) he would give someone short (or shorter at least) a tip to lead the horse instead. So my father tells me anyway!

No they bred the Angus cattle small for the export market. Mainly the South American pampas gaucho market.
This all ended when Britain joined the EEC and breeders started bringing in Canadian genetics back to Scotland to breed a larger animal.

With the horses. Now you know why small people do well showing horses.:p

Bellview

patsy_mccabe wrote:

The big emphasis recently has been on 'breeding for profit'. Before this it was all about breeding for the best sale price. Now fancy computers try to work out the cost of producing or maintaining that animal based solely on its genetics. World leading stuff, but considered a load of bullsh1t by some. I've a foot in each camp.

Likewise foot in each camp but when I see reports that all beef tastes the same no matter the breed...I then start to think when did the computer develop taste buds and figure this out