Herd books, DNA and dubious parentage!

Peter thornton · Post by **Peter thornton** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 11:56 am

No herd book is ever 100% accurate. 90%, perhaps 95% is probably as good as it gets.

The human herdbook is a good example - a recent survey found that 25% had a different parentage to what they had been led to believe! Cattle are easier to manage - our bulls don't go off to the pub and there is less scope for "uncontrolled liasons"

BUT animals jump fences (and sometimes jump back again). Farmers make mistakes, especially if they have 2 or more bulls.
Young males sometimes become sexually mature a lot quicker than we expect.
Offices make mistakes, I have a set of pedigree cards (not from the DCS) which do not agree with one another.
And sometimes a super animal will be produced of uncertain parentage leading to the temptation to "regularise" matters with the stroke of a pen.

We now have DNA testing which can be used to solve all of the above. We now have the capability to produce a super accurate herdbook - for the 1st time in history.

BUT lets just slow down a little. Cattle societies have survived for a long time without ithis level of accuracy and we should tread a little carefully before we create a highly regulated, genetically very pure but very small society.

Some of us spend a lot of time poring over pedigrees and think that accuracy is of supreme importance, and some of us just like to keep nice looking cows!

Every society has a range of members, from the "top" breeders to the ordinary members, who just like cows. The trick is to keep them all on board. The society belongs to all of us. If Council wants to create a highly regulated society then we all deserve to be consulted before we set off down that route.

We should let the market decide. If our customers want absolute certainty about pedigrees then animals with verified parentage will command higher prices. This is what happened with scrapie testing in the sheep world. The test was made optional but the market soon decided that it was desirable.

As for bulls, lets just take a sample of every bull registered and let it work through the system. A proper system of compulsory bull inspection would be a lot more effective in maintaining the standard of the breed.

And finally - I applaud the time and dedication put in by Council, but I really don't feel that this is the time to be introducing controversial changes. The Single Farm Payment may, or may not, have far reaching effects on our society. Let's just take things a litle slower.

I am also a member of the Lleyn sheep cociety, which is run by hard bitten professional farmers. They have done a fine job of improving the breed whilst keeping all their members on board. All rule changes are well discussed and happen at a measured pace. The breed IS important, but the breeders are the people without whom the breed would not exist

Let's try to learn from this example?

Kathy Millar · Post by **Kathy Millar** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 4:54 pm

Well put, Peter. Every society needs the broad spectrum of breeders to keep everything in perspective. New technology moves faster than the human pyschi (sp?) and as all famers know, if it doesn't get done today, there is always tomorrow....

Kathy

steve p · Post by **steve p** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 4:01 pm

The trouble is kathy some people see there cattle as £ signs which is ok if you are in it as a living, where some of us see them as a hobby and a joy to keep, and if we make or lose a £ or two over a year we still carry on, lets face it some of us though we dare not admit it look on them as pets, dexters may be the smallest breed at shows or in the field but they have got the biggest charaters, lets not forget two ugly parents can still produce a beautiful baby and vice versa?

steve

carolann · Post by **carolann** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:01 pm

As a member who may wish to buy PEDIGREE livestock it is my right to exspect the parentage to be correct.
That is after all what a pedigree animal is, an animal whos relatives can be identifed.
It does not matter if a person has 2 or 202 animals if they choose to breed and register pedigree livestock it is there duty to ensure the breeding is true to the paperwork.
I for one am all for DNA testing.
How council goes about collecting the samples is another matter.If they choose to have field officers collect them it will be very time consuming and exspensive. My thoughts would be to let people do their own. because of the number of animals envolved, anyone who cheats would very soon be found out.