Selective breeding is an art that has been practiced down through the ages. With its use, man has created diverse lines of animals that are much more useful than their original ancestors.

Here’s a fact that might seem unfair to the dumber individuals among us. The one with the bigger, higher functioning brain gets to make the rules. Humans have a larger and more complex intellect than the rest of God’s creatures. Consequently, man has been domesticating and selectively breeding animals for his own benefit for a very long time. Scientists believe that the Aurochs, the ancient ancestor of today’s modern cattle, were first domesticated between 8,000 and 10,500 years ago.

Selective breeding comes along with domestication.  Selective breeding entails picking animals with certain desired traits and mating them with phenotypically similar individuals. It can be just that simple or more on the complex side depending on who you talk to.

In any case, through the use of selective breeding, humans have developed over 900 distinct breeds of cattle which descend from their original Aurochs ancestors.

The Birth of Animal Husbandry

In a population of animals, change is made in a certain trait by selecting breeding stock that are more extreme in that area than their cohorts. There are trade-offs that go with selection for any extreme or genetic antagonisms.

With our Aurochs example, man would obviously need a population of animals with more docility than their wild counterparts. The more docile version of Aurochs more than likely lost some of the traits that made their ancestors good survivors in the wild.

This necessitated that humans also manage the environment of their domesticated Aurochs to aid them in their survival and increase their productivity.

Selective breeding and environmental management are the two main ingredients in animal husbandry.

 

Selective Breeding Turns Aurochs into Angus

There are over 900 distinct cattle breeds that comprise nearly 1.5 billion head of cows on planet Earth. That’s a lot beef! Of course, the cattle breeds that we have now didn’t just show up on their own.

So where did it all start?

With the Aurochs, of course! See https://www.wired.com/2012/03/cattle-ox-origins/

Aurochs were bovine giants, standing nearly 7 feet tall at the shoulder with menacing forward curving horns. They strutted the wild, ancient plains on legs far more lengthy and slender than  cattle seen today.

The first attempts to domesticate them were likely filled with adventure, excitement and possibly some serious bodily injuries. It brings to mind the movie 10000 B.C. and the domesticated Mastodons.

The distinctions between the Aurochs and their present day descendants are huge. If Aurochs weren’t extinct it would be interesting to stand an Aurochs bull next to an Angus.

Selective breeding down through the generations enabled man to create the Aberdeen Angus breeds, both red and black.

According to Wikipedia, breeds are formed through genetic isolation and either natural adaptation to the environment or selective breeding, or a combination of the two.

From here on I want to take a look at some of the practices, tools and factors that effect modern cattle breeding. My opinions will be freely given. Whoever go’s to the trouble to read all this is invited to ad to the discussion here…..

 

 

 

 

 

Close Breeding

In either linebreeding or inbreeding, close breeding is all about reducing genetic variation within a given population. This consists of planned matings that place the same individuals close up on the top and bottoms sides of a pedigree.

The exact distinction between line breeding and inbreeding differs depending on who you’re talking to.

For the sake of simplicity I’ll go with the definitions from Jim Lendts’ book, “The Basis of Line Breeding”. To start we’ll assume that each individual inherits 50% of its genetic influence from each parent. This isn’t necessarily the case but for the sake of simplicity this is what we’ll assume.

Linebreeding

Linebreeding, though planned matings, concentrates the blood of superior animals on both sides of a pedigree while never exceeding 50% influence of any single individual. Half sib matings for example can be carried on in perpetuity without exceeding the 50% level.

Linebreeding is a time tested method used by master breeders to concentrate and consistently reproduce desirable traits within their herds and flocks. The flip side of this is that any undesirable traits will also become more concentrated and pronounced. Consequently, linebreeding must also involve rigorous selection and culling of undesirable individuals particularly in the first generations.

In a linebreeding program, a picture of the ideal animal must be kept in mind. When an ideal balance has been established, continuing to push for the extreme outlier in any trait is the antithesis of creating consistency.

”Also see Lush on linebreeding.” http://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/blog/lush-on-linebreeding

Inbreeding

While linebreeding never exceeds 50% genetic influence of any given individual, inbreeding on the other hand is incestuous. Sire to daughter or son to dam matings are examples of this. In this scenario, the resulting animal will carry 75% influence from one parent.

Inbreeding is seldom practiced in any great scale. This is due the the potentially costly expression of hidden deleterious traits.

Before genetic testing became a viable means to check for recessive genetic defects, there was only one way to statistically prove a sire “defect free”. That was to breed him to 35 of his daughters. If no genetic defects appear the sire is 99.7% likely to be defect free.

For a variety of reasons programs that practice any form of close breeding in this day and age are almost as rare as Aurachs. I don’t consider this to be a positive thing.

The scope of my knowledge and experience lies with Angus cattle. It seems to me that the programs of the past that left any lasting impact were line breeding programs. The creation of all those 900 + cattle breeds was accomplished through close breeding as well.

I think we need a little more original thinking. Take my free advice for what it’s worth. Have the confidence to make the cattle your own. The flip side of that is to make them a product what’s popular in the AI catalogs.

What do you think? Click here to comment.

The Show Ring

Livestock shows provide a good place for breeders to go and exhibit the animals they’re most proud of. There’s nothing that isn’t positive about that.

Sometimes though, livestock breeders began to base their program on what is currently popular in the show ring. This is antithetical to consistency. Also, depending on what is currently in vogue, at times it’s downright destructive to commercial profitability.

Visualize a timeline of photos of the National Western Grand Champion Angus bull from each year starting in the 1940s through the present day.

The 1940s ideal type bull appeared as if a tall man could have stepped over his back without getting hung up in the middle.

If that same tall man was still around in 1987 he would have just barely been able to peek over the NWSS Grand Champion Angus bull’s back.

At present day the ideal is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.

Today the show ring doesn’t hold nearly the sway on the seed stock industry that it once did. I believe that’s a change for the better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring Performance

Show ring based breeding programs neglected to measure anything of any commercial value. Additionally the phenotypical ideal put out by show judges was a constantly moving target. At times what was made popular had little or no relevance to actual production agriculture.

The Birth of the Performance Movement

What follows will not be an exact time line of events. The basic facts are that a segment of those in the cattle industry became increasingly dissatisfied with the eyeball only method of selecting breeding stock.

This led to measurement of economically important traits gradually replacing the opinion of a show judge as the bench mark for potential breeding stock to live up to.

USDA EXPERIMENT STATIONS

As early as the 1920s USDA experiment stations were doing investigations into individual performance of beef cattle.

Some of their early findings were as follows. 1- Beef cattle differ greatly in their ability to grow. 2-These differences are fairly highly heritable. 3-Rate of gain and efficiency of gain are fairly highly correlated. 4-Brood cow performance is a repeatable trait.

BULL TEST STATIONS

The first Beef cattle improvement association was formed in the state of Virginia in 1955. By the early 1970s every state in the union with a relevant sized beef cattle population had its own BCIA.

Midland Bull test at Columbus Montana today is the bull test of all bull tests. According to the book “Courageous Cattlemen” the first year of testing at Midland was 1963. Performance testing was in its infancy. Additionally, breeders of performance cattle were looked upon with some skepticism by those who viewed themselves as being in the main stream.

In 1963, a grand total of 60 bulls were tested at Midland. Ranchers soon discovered the value a proven performance bull could add to their calf crop though. Demand has steadily increased ever since.

A check of the MBT web site shows that they sold 700 bulls in two days in 2018. Since they only allow the top performing 2/3 to go through the sale, it’s easy to deduce that they put 1000+ bulls on test in 2017.

Performance Breeders

There were many progressive breeders in the mid 1950s to mid 1960s time period interested in attaining standardized procedures for attaining pre and post weaning performance data on their stock. The ABCPRA, PRI, and BIF were organizations instrumental to that end. Breed Associations have largely taken up this role in present times.

Potential Problems

Selective breeding decisions made through the use of performance data are certainly superior to the eyeball method. There’s no question about it. It can have its own setbacks though. One of the potential problems can be that the eyeball is taken out of the equation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying pretty is as pretty does. It’s a saying tailor made for numbers only breeders. These days’ cattle with sway backs and high
tail heads are certainly plentiful in the Angus Journal. An upturned pelvis translates into calving problems.