The Impact of Genetics on Animal Breeding

Abstract

If we would know how genetic knowledge is changing animal breeding practices or is likely soon to change them, we can probably get our best clues by asking what the animal breeders are studying now. Predictions made on this basis will not be wholly accurate, of course. The “endless frontier" nature of science precludes high accuracy in any method of predicting the future, especially the distant future. Yet always there is some time-lag in applying newly won knowledge to the arts and business of production. Predictions of the immediate future on the basis of that time-lag are likely to be a bit better than guesses.