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Is Fertility Heritable?

N

Northern Rancher

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Feb 10, 2005
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Location
saskatchewan
I'm thinking more than people think-I just called my A'I' stud-that Hereford bull of ours just popped 800 staws in one jump-the only other beef bull that's come close in the 1,000's they've drawn there over the years is his 3/4 brother. It would be interesting if the beef business kept track of services per conception like the dairy guys do. Imagine that a Hereford-no less-gonna be alot of black cows with baldie calves next year lol.
 
Geez Northern Rancher, I thought this post was going to be an announcement that you were going to be a daddy again!!! LOL
 
I read an article that said fertility is a low heritabile trait. The article said environment, ie groceries were more important.

I know some semen traits can be heritible, from sire to son only. I have one sire group the bulls all had huge scrotals and abnormally high proximal droplets. The daughters of the bull have not passed any defects on to their sons. Maybe this was environmental as the large scrotals might have been prone to being knocked around.

I have a cow that breeds very easilly but has had 2 heifers come in dry. Her bulls look good and test well.

Cattle with low fertility don't get many chances to produce offspring as they get culled. Everyone keeps using the cattle that breed, but we all still wind up with some drys. Makes you wonder.
 
Jason you are very right. As a whole fertility traits are thought to only be heritable to about 20 percent (I think numbers i am not 100% sure with but very low) while growth traits are often in the 40 - 60 percent range. Thats just what i have learned through texts though and have never seen it out in the field though...
 
Well I'd beg to differ for sure-there are cow families that could breed back on snowballs and no promises-I've had little family groups mothers,daughters ,granddaughters calve in a cluster year after year. Both those bulls go back to 8020 daughters which are a very fertile line of cattle.
 
I hear what you are saying NR but you have clusters because the cows are fertile not necessarily because they inherited it.

I've seen the same thing cow families that seem to be all fertile. Then I will get a family big enough and some drop out.

I am using an a Bull Semex has leased (Greenstone) He jumps like your bull too, hundreds of straws at a time. His sire went dry while collecting so is it inherited?

Angus Girls number of .20 heritable sounds right according to the article I read. So some heritablity exists, not just a high degree.
 
Jason how come they are fertile if they didn't inherit it-if a whole cow family calves first every year doesn't that suggest inherited fertility-or does a magic fecundity fairy sprinkle dust on them when I'm not looking.
 
NR: I'd tend to agree that overall fertility is on the lower side for heritability but some individual animals can and do really pass it on! A bunch of years ago we had a W bull (not from the last round but before....late 60's model) that established a longtime collection record for Western Breeders at White City! This bull had libido second to none, bred close to 80 cows as a 2 yr old( not planned but he rotated himself thru 3 pastures breeding everything he caught wind of!!). We never turned him out to pasture.....come breeding time he busted through every corral we had and went to the hills.......took lots of cows and a good electric fencer to keep him in his own field. Many of his sons were the same way and were in demand because they covered the cows. We've still got some semen left (ampules.....none of them sissified frenchy straws) and will be reintroducing his influence back into our herd!
 
NR: I agree that there are some cows that calf first cycle regardless of how they are managed while there are some that you can feed and coddle and still can't calf on time. The key is to keep rplacements from the more fertile cows and can the rest.


FWIW: If your Hereford bull improves the disposition of his calves like mine have done you are going to love his calves. Won't make much for roughstock though.
 
All I can say NR is don't question why a certian cow family is fertile, just be grateful for that.

Fertility is a very important economic trait and sub fertile cows should be culled.

The more we learn about these critters though, the less we really know.

For example how many cows have been culled as poor breeders when in fact they have cystic ovaries?

I have been experimenting with different approaches, 2 we used this year were feeding out on the field where the cows had more room to eat, and we also gave factril on any repeats. Our first service conception was over 80%. Even with that 1 cow about 10 years old was bred A.I 3 times and we saw the bull service her the other day. She made it to 10 by breeding every year, she's not my favorite cow and I would have culled her in a heartbeat if open. Maybe this year.
 
If like is posted fertility is onlt 20% genitics this is still very important as you can control the enviroment to a large extent so that leaves the 20% you must select for.

It is like a chain - - - you need all the links to be in good shape or you can get a break and it doesn't matter that the other 80% of the chain is good.
 
I think your right George, continue to apply selection pressure. But the fact is that if a trait is only somewhat heritable, you will still not see consistant results all the time.

Even with gains being highly heritable, not all the calves from a high gaining bull will do well in the feedlot. That doesn't mean we should start choosing low gaining bulls though.
 

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