You will notice that the same animals appear more than once on the pedigrees of many of our bulls. You may have been told that this is “inbreeding,” a practice to be avoided. However, we have been linebreeding Jersey genetics at Holt Creek Jerseys for many years, for several, strategic reasons and with specific purposes.
Linebreeding is a tool that we have been using at Holt Creek Jerseys for many years. Like any tool, it can be ineffective and even harmful in the hands of an inexperienced user, but it can also be utilized to great advantage by the person who has taken the time to practice its use.
The Ideal Jersey of the American Jersey Cattle Association, 1955.
While line breeding is typically done by seedstock growers and not by commercial producers, the use of line bred bulls in a non-seedstock herd is quite common and can have many benefits. By utilizing the prepotency of proven genetics that have been concentrated into a single animal, you can see noticeable results in just one generation of using a line bred bull.
It is undisputed that no breed of domesticated animal was created without the use of line breeding, nor would some of the great improvements within those breeds have been possible without line breeding. Linebreeding Jersey genetics has been practiced since the very beginnings of the breed, and linebreeding is how many of the characteristics of Jersey genetics was established.
The use of line bred sires is common practice in almost all of the most influential breeding programs in the world, from race horses to rabbits, from show dogs to beef cattle. It is nothing new, is perhaps one of the most ancient practices of mankind, and is nothing to be feared.
Why Use Line Bred Bulls?
- Line bred bulls produce exceptional hybrid vigor in a cross-bred mating, as well as in an outcross mating within the same breed.
- Line bred bulls produce consistent results, which allows you to make more informed, strategic breeding decisions.
- Line bred bulls increase the chances that desirable traits will be passed to the next generation.