VETS20015 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Effective Population Size, Genetic Drift, Cube Root
2 Aug 2018
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Question - deleterious effects of a small population size. A hobby farmer has a herd of 30 murray grey cows and one bull. Male progeny are castrated and sold as 15 month old steers. Replacement heifers are mated at 15 months of age, with the remainder of young females sold. The bull has been used in the herd for the previous three years. The farmer is considering breeding his own replacement bull, rather than purchasing a replacement from the local stud. Don"t breed own bulls population too small, severe inbreeding inevitable. In any case better genetic material and better gains available from larger studs. Buy a replacement bull every second year ensures father-daughter matings cannot occur. Current bull used the previous 3 years, which means the heifers mated to him this year must be his own daughters. Assess pedigree as well as ebv"s when purchasing replacements bulls.
