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Post by bluegranitefarm on Oct 23, 2012 15:18:37 GMT -5
So, my two cows are full sisters one year apart. Both are black A1/A2 and chondro free. That is where the similarities end! They both had first calves this year. I am hand milking both of them and keeping calves with them. Olivia freshened first on Jan 31. I believe she was bred back in June. She is wonderful about being milked, BUT - she has the smallest teats I have ever seen. My goats from years ago were bigger. I can only use my thumb and first two fingers. As far as i can tell, everything else is good, udder size. Her sister Jean has what I consider normal size teats. It takes so long to milk Olivia because each squirt has such small volume. To top it off, I have carpal tunnel- which I've been trying to manage non-surgically. So how could they be so different? And of course Olivia had a heifer calf. Will she end up with TTS (tiny teat syndrome ha ha) too? I had been hoping to keep her calf but I don't want an udder like her mother. Also how bad would it be to breed the calf to her father? I wouldn't do it with dogs, but I'm not sure about cattle. Any input would be awesome.  |
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Post by cddexter on Oct 23, 2012 16:13:06 GMT -5
I'd go back and check out the udders on the granddams. No rule says every calf has to inherit from the same side of the tree...if you find the TTS (love it!) are from the bull's side, I definitely wouldn't breed the daughter back to him. Otherwise, it is a good way to find out what hidden traits your animals have. Line breeding multiplies things--good and bad. IMO of course. cheers, c.
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Post by bluegranitefarm on Oct 26, 2012 6:04:00 GMT -5
Thanks for the input. I would like to hold on to the heifer from Olivia and see how her udder turns out. There's a 50% chance she's A2/A2. I'm planning on having her and my bull calf tested next. If she doesn't turn out to be a good milking candidate, I'll reevaluate.
Genebo, thanks for the easy to understand genetics lesson. Particularly the difference between dogs and cows and gene pool size. I read an interesting article a while back about line breeding in dogs. The article made the point that breeding based on genotype -( line breeding) vs. breeding based on phenotype ( out crosses) made a big difference in the available genetic information on hidden alleles ( basically your point, but less clearly stated) the concern with line breeding or inbreeding was that the risk of inherited health issues would increase as the number of hidden alleles decreased. Am I understanding you correctly that the gene pool in Dexters is small enough that most bad traits (bad feet, PHA, etc) have already come out, thus no surprises? The breed of dogs I have (Irish Terriers) has a relatively small population, thus far with few health problems. My only complaint is that in the dog world, sometimes conformation ( dog shows) wins out over utility and temperament. I would rather try to correct a bad tail set through breeding than a bad temperament any day. I'll find out next week. I have a litter due about the time the monster storm is supposed to hit the east coast.
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Post by cddexter on Oct 26, 2012 21:47:57 GMT -5
There are still lots of undesirable traits in Dexters. Flat feet, sickle hocks, cow hocks, narrow muzzles, weak backs, poor tail sets, small rib eye, appalling udders, we got'm all.
I've seen a bull fix a bad udder in one generation: cow's udder looked like some of those on the udder thread under photos, and her daughter by Riverhill Saturn's Galaxy was a reserve champion at the Calgary Stampede. My info is the trait tends to cross from one sex to the other, one generation to the next. That is, a bull will likely get his dam's udder, and his daughters will inherit his genes. Not always, of course, but this tends to be a pretty common thing.
Line breeding just multiplies what you have so it becomes more apparent instead of keeping it hidden.
What kind of dog? cheers, c.
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