J. Anim Sci.
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J. Anim Sci. 1988. 66:1885-1891.
© 1988 American Society of Animal Science
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Bovine Nirvana-From the Perspective of an Experimentalist1

William D. Hohenboken2

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg 24061

Abstract

To be perfect, a beef cow would have to meet an impossible list of reproductive, maternal, management, health and miscellaneous specifications. Such a cow does not exist. Selection for maternal productivity is difficult. Some traits are difficult to measure; many are sex-limited; some are lowly heritable; antagonisms exist between some traits; genetic parameters and economic weights often are not known; optimum levels are not known for some traits and vary according to the environment for others; optimum production per animal may not coincide with optimum production per unit of land area or other limiting resource. Past selection sometimes has emphasized traits unrelated or detrimental to production efficiency. Breeding value estimation is a powerful selection tool, but relevant genetic and economic statistics are not well known, and application of the methods for material traits would be cumbersome. Consideration of "easy-care" cattle production (to allow natural selection a greater role in replacement decisions) should be considered. Research is needed to identify indicator traits for maternal productivity, to estimate genetic correlations among maternal traits and production efficiency and to conduct biological experimentation and systems analysis to determine economic weights and optima for maternal traits. Possible future criteria for cattle might include 1) cows with intermediate values for appropriate physiological traits and with superior homeostasis; 2) cows that respond to increased management inputs with increased productivity; 3) lines with exaggerated genetic merit for specialized traits; and 4) cows with potential for high productivity in low input, natural environments.

Footnotes

1 Invited paper at the Beef Cattle Session, 79th Annu. Mtg. of the Am. Soc. of Anim. Sci., Logan, UT, July 29, 1987.

2 Dept. of Anim. Sci.






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