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What the Cattle Breeder Would Ask the Geneticist

Yakima, Washington

Abstract

Not many months ago, when traveling on a train, I heard two young men in the seat across from me discussing a successful breeder. One of them quite shocked me when he said, "It's too bad that he (the breeder) doesn't know he would have gotten his results anyhow, just as a matter of chance, even though he had not worked so hard to select his breeding animals." Later I was informed that he. was a statistical geneticist, and that his mind worked in the abstract only. This relieved my feelings for several months.

However, I got a new shock recently when reporting to one of my associates on our cattle breeding operations during the six months just past, during which time, on something over one hundred animals sold, we had made a very gratifying average price and one of which we were quite proud. My partner, who is chiefly interested in mining, inquired as to whether or not we had included in this average the sale of last fall's International grand champion bull, a sale which ran into several thousand dollars and one which I naturally would not omit from my calculations.