West Central Iowa | Hick - 2/28/2021 14:15
Do angus cattle already have heterosis from being secretly bred to other breeds.
Asking for a friend.
I believe they do.
Heterosis happens when an offspring gets two different alleles for a particular gene. Don’t think of it as multi generational. What matters more is how often a predominant sire/cow shows up in lineages. There are different lineages in the Angus breed that would have heterosis if crossed, but a lot of the mainstream stuff is bred similarly if you start looking into the pedigrees. If you want to go way back you will find shorthorns contribute a lot of genetics to both the Hereford and Angus breed, so how much heterosis is that cross really producing? Now with so many breeds incorporating Angus into them and selecting for Angus type; they are eliminating heterosis when crossed back to Angus. Also, not all heterosis is a positive thing.
Edited by nkline 2/28/2021 15:40
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Heterosis?
