Breeders should not avoid the use of the best sons of a particular bull simply because the bull has female offspring in their herd. Some combinations of bulls with cows in a herd may produce more inbreeding that you find acceptable. Avoid the matings that produce unacceptable amounts of inbreeding rather than eliminating the bull from a breeding program. Return to Table of Contents Identification is essential Inbreeding cannot be avoided unless the pedigree of the cow to be inseminated is known in depth. Extremely close matings can occur when identity is unknown, but much of the loss from inbreeding comes from common ancestors three or more generations back in a pedigree.
Many producers are unaware that the animals affected are inbred at all.
More than one common ancestor can affect overall inbreeding as well. This means that complete pedigree information for four or five generations back is needed to do a good job of managing inbreeding. It may well be that one of the most valuable assets of a registered cow in years to come will be the ability to assign mates for her with optimum control of inbreeding. Grade animals, particularly the increasing number of such animals from very large dairy herds, frequently don't have complete pedigree data for several generations back. Even if a complete pedigree on a grade animal could be developed through use of historic DHI records, the information is not of much use unless it is available in a form that allows computerized mating programs to use it.