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Portability of Animal Breeding Research to Developing Countries: Beef Cattle¹

Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station 77843

Abstract

The relevance of animal breeding research in developing countries (LDC) is a function of benefit/cost in both economic and social terms. Under the assumption that it is economically cheaper, at least in the short term, to "import" technologies developed in other countries (vs domestically), the benefit/cost is conditioned by the research results available and the degree to which such results are applicable for developing technologies in the importing country. Basic research results and research techniques can be transported without loss of relevance. However, beef cattle production is a complex system in which interpretation of basic results for application may be obscured, and the net effect of any intervention on the total stream of inputs and outputs of the system cannot be estimated intuitively with accuracy. Developments in systems science and the current availability of modern computers provide a method of organizing disciplinary research findings into a coherent whole, a simulation model, so that these results can realistically be related to application (i.e., the simulation model is a vehicle for transporting research results). Animal breeding research in LDC is relevant, and priority should be directed toward characterizing the local breeds and production environment in order to utilize (import) research from other countries effectively. The most relevant research for exporting countries, in terms of LDC needs, is in application of systems science and basic or fundamental research in areas such as explication of genetic mediation of anatomical and physiological functions of growth, lactation, reproduction and adaptation.

¹ Presented at the symposium "The Relevance of Animal Breeding Research In Developing Countries" held July 30, 1987 at the Annu. Meet. of the Am. Soc. of Anim. Sci., Utah State Univ., Logan.

² Anim. Sci. Dept.

³ Range Sci. and Anim. Sci. Depts.