“It’s just common sense,” Lalman says. “When you look at the genetic trend for milk in the most popular breeds, on an equivalent basis, milking ability increases about 1 lb./year. We’re doing the same thing in selecting for increased muscle and growth potential. You have to ask yourself how much we need and how much can we afford at cow-calf level?”
Lalman shares this quote from Rick Bourdon, a respected industry geneticist and practical thinker: “To breed for optimum means you have a target in sight beyond which you don’t want to go. If your goal is to maintain an optimum level for any trait, the evidence of your accomplishment is not visible change but the lack of it.”
Lalman adds: “As an industry, we have demonstrated our ability to follow trends and overdo things. It’s getting us away from matching cows to their forage resources.”
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Sounds like familiar territory here...