The late and renowned animal scientist, Dr. Jan Bonsma, arguably made one of his controversial statements in his manuscript titled Selecting the Stud Female. He clearly states that pedigrees are over emphasized in breeding programs and implies they are just as much a marketing tool as they are actually predictive.
Now admittedly, those words may be sacrilegious to some breeders today, but are they wrong? Think about it. Let's put it to the test by reviewing the tale of two bulls.
Say you are on the hunt for a new herd sire prospect with a substantial budget to work with and you visit a respected seedstock producer with hundreds of well bred animals to choose from. You have identified two bulls as potential herd sire prospects, both are 2 years old. Bull A has an immaculate pedigree full of all the maternal and performance history you could ever dream of. He is perfect from a pedigree perspective. You are worried though, because he has light muscling, questionable structure/soundness, poor feet, and performed below average in his contemporary group. Moreover, his EPDs are also underwhelming and are worse than the pedigree would of predicted. To make it more interesting, not only does he have an immaculate pedigree, he's also the last ET calf ever out of your favorite $100,000 donor who recently died and his sire is your favorite stud-bull on the market. With all that said, even with all the concerning question marks, he's a "okay" bull with a perfect pedigree.
Then there is Bull B, an absolute stud. Heavily muscled, perfect structured, excellent footed, moves like a cat, he was the number 1 performing animal in his contemporary group, and is clearly the most physically impressive bull in the entire sale. Moreover, his EPDs are also very compelling. What's the catch? His pedigree. Riddled with animals that were average or below average. Maybe there's a sire or two in there 2-3 generations back that's known for throwing bad feet or udders. Bull B's only saving grace is that his mother was also available for viewing and fortunately she did have very nice feet and udder, though her pedigree was even worse than Bull B's.
Although you hate Bull B's pedigree, you remember your Biology 101 class in college that pounded into your head the basic Mendelian principals of inheritability and you remember that the animal standing before you only retains 25% of the DNA from it's grandparents, 12.5% from its great-grandparent's, and 6.25% from its great-great-grandparents. Moreover, you know the animal in front of you is its own animal with a genetic makeup that is novel and can never be exactly replicated - meaning, Bull B is a unique individual who is not* the same as his grandparent's, his parent's, or even his full siblings. Although you are nervous and feel you are taking a huge risk, your eyes and your gut tell you that he's the right bull. The silver lining is that you were able to acquire him for only $10,000 while Bull A brought $100,000. The price tag made it clear most of the other seedstock breeders clearly disagreed with your thought process. In the end, you think to yourself "I might be wrong but at least I didn't overpay."
Fast forward, 10 years later you are curious what ever-happened with Bull A's progeny so you do some digging and calling around. To your disappointment but mostly relief, Bull A consistently produced animals with poor structure and bad feet. Most of his son's were light muscled, broke behind the shoulders, and were often straight hocked. His daughters didn't last long in most herds due usually to structural and soundness issues. Relieved, you compare and evaluate how Bull B has impacted your own herd. His sons were masculine and were well received by commercial cattlemen, and nearly all of his daughters are still in production today and also emulated the positive traits Bull B was observed to possess.
Now to be clear, anyone that is familiar with Bonsma's work, knows he did indeed value pedigree information and used it as an additional data point. Obviously, a good bull with a "good" pedigree would be preferred over a good bull with a "bad" pedigree assuming all else is equal. It's an added layer of genetic confidence. The big question is though, is all else equal? Bonsma first evaluated the animal in front of him, and then overlaid pedigree information with a lower priority.
People often misrepresent Bonsma and describe him as some hippy tree hugging "granola" breeder who only believed in breeding based on phenotypical criteria resulting in the "Bonsma type." This couldn't be farther from the truth. Bonsma was the epitome of a balanced breeder who believed in improving performance while retaining/improving phenotype. He never* felt like you had to sacrifice one for the other. In another manuscript titled The Importance of Performance and Progeny Testing in Breeding Better Stud Stock, Bonsma yet again made another statement doubling down on his viewpoint of "pedigree breeding" shown in Figure 2 below even suggesting "....In the future, the value of a pedigree will be relegated to into the background." Moreover, one of his most famous quotes is "A man must measure." He identified his famous Bonsma phenotypical traits *because* they correlated with improved* performance. It seems today many have forgotten how to "measure."
Back on our example above regarding the tale of two bulls. What bull would you choose?
To end, here is a photo of Sterling Bad Man, one of VICCI's resident herd sires. A bull with excellent phenotype, soundness, and foot quality. Moreover, in our view, he has a phenomenal pedigree packing maternal and performance traits multiple generations deep. All of which is capped by a balanced and competitive EPD profile. We are looking forward to his first sons and daughters hitting the ground in the fall of 2025. He checked most of our genotypical and phenotypical boxes which gives us confidence in his ability to transmit the desired traits we want. Ultimately though, we won't know until his progeny prove themselves. That's what makes genetics interesting, there are no guarantees!
Happy breeding
Josh Bedell,
President & Owner
VICCI Cattle Co.
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