Is The Animal Model Obsolete?

Abstract

The focus of animal breeding over the last 9 decades has been the evaluation of dairy bulls, and then cows. Thus, improving the models for genetic evaluation progressed from daughter-dam comparisons to herdmate comparisons to contemporary comparisons to sire models and lastly to animal models. Much effort is spent on animal models today without any consideration of the possibility that they may no longer be appropriate for use. This paper presents arguments that animal models are obsolete for use in dairy cattle. Also given is an alternative model and approach for the future.