Are you using it YET?

When you talk about new bulls or breeding trends with fellow farmers, many farmers adopt a wait and see attitude.
They need to be convinced. They usually get convinced in time.
What if you were an early adopter instead?
There have been many arguments over new ideas and technology in cattle breeding over the years.

 

Many people waited while others were early innovators.

• Artificial insemination
• Sire Evaluations
• Embryo transfer
• IVF technology
• Cloning
• Animal Model Evaluations
• Mace Conversions (International Evaluations)
• Red Genetics 
• Sexed semen
• Health trait selection
• Genomics (Proving PA on its own was/is very unreliable)
• Polled Genetics 

In each case there were many that would say things like “it’s unproven”, “it’s not reliable enough”, “no one has done it before”, “the heritability is too low” or “it will ruin the breed”. YET in each case the early adopters were the ones to receive the biggest benefit. Regardless of whether any of these had impact is not the issue being raised. The breed has progressed in spite of what we think is right or wrong. Without some failures we would not learn anything. If you always wait to see if it works, it usually means you probably missed the party.

When you hear “it’s the next thing in breeding” are you an early adopter, or do you prefer to proceed with caution, and wait to see if your neighbour accepts it first?

Those using polled now are the early adaptors; they know it is inevitable that the breed will be polled but if you’re not using it “YET” it’s alright you can always start tomorrow.