R
esearch has shown that fertility is a significant driver of profitability in the cow/calf industry. Work by Melton (1995) shows that in a traditional type of system fertility is 5 times as important as growth and 10 times more important than carcass merit to cow/calf industry profit. Even in more integrated systems such as retained ownership, fertility will double growth and carcass merit as a driver of profit. Working in the genetic field we often run into the issue of low heritability regarding fertility traits, and people may consider this to mean that we can’t make progress on fertility through genetic selection. This is worth diving into, as fertility is such an important piece of the profit puzzle. Firstly, it is important to recognize that the traits we can and do make progress on are often progressive or linear, and that as we apply increased management, we see increased performance and spreads between cattle. Let’s look at a growth example. If we examine cattle for differences in growth and limit the diet, we
Page 20 • Spring 2022 • Gelbvieh guide
