AI systems today sell twice as many straws per calf
born as they did in the 1970s, in spite of all the advances in technologies and
near-universal adoption of “production medicine” approaches by
veterinarians. For many dairymen the
cost of each cow pregnancy has grown to several hundred dollars (ultrasounding,
pre synch shots, Ov Synch, multiple services per cow, sexed semen on heifers)
as traditional fertility management (breeding on observed natural heats)
has gone out the window for these operations.
What role did decades of ignoring genetic fertility
play in this development? We think
the answer is simple—it is Darwinian to assume that “genes not exercised in the
current environment will be lost to future generations”. If we ignore fertility genes, they do not
stay the same—selection for anything else (especially if negatively
correlated to fertility) will result in a declining “genetic base’ for that
gene expression.
Want to improve the fertility in your herd by
genetics? Use the tools already available; health
and fitness traits, maternal pedigree screening for longevity, physical
balancing of matings from the “aAa” breeding guide. Your progress will be measurable.
No comments:
Post a Comment