In farming, breeding is about improving the odds of desirable traits amongst a herd, but for the last two years, New Zealand dairy farmers have removed chance from the equation. Some farmers are using technology which allows the bulls semen to be scanned to determine which sex of offspring it will produce. This is made possible because the semen to produce a heifer calf has 3.8% more DNA than semen to produce a bull calf. Through the use of scanning, the number of heifer cows produced is accurate in >90% of the cases.
Through the use of this technology, they have also been able to more accurately predict the transmission of traits, with an accuracy of between 50-65%, up 35% on parental averages. This speeds up the proving of a bull, the process by determining the quality of its heifer calfs, as the offspring don't even have to of been produced to see their quality, ie. milk yield, temperament.
These advances are heralding in a new era of genetic selection. How long before humans are modified to have the 'perfect' traits?
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