A fresian bull by the name of Potter recently joined a small, but elite, group of dairy sires that have produced & sold more than 1 million units of semen. This means that this bull has approximately 150,000 daughters & 2.3 million granddaughters in herds around the globe. These figures demonstrate how rapid genetic progress is in the dairy industry.
With dairy cattle being selected primarily for the single trait of milk production & with more than 90% of cows being artificially inseminated the rate of genetic progress within the dairy industry is rapid. This is increased further by the fact that most dairy cows remain in production for less time than beef cows, this means that generations are turned over quicker & genetic improvement is faster.
By comparison genetic progress in a beef herd is relatively slow. This is because beef breeders have to focus on multiple, often low heritability, traits rather than the single trait of milk production. Genetic progress is also slower in beef herds because only a very small percentage of beef herds are bred by AI.
Despite these differences in genetic advancement both dairy & beef cattle are working towards the common goal of more product from less cows.
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