I have liked this post because I think there have been some very good points brought up, even if they were not noticed. As we know many of the breed associations have introduced "Breeding Up" programs to "Improve" their breeds. Introducing other breeds in order to improve on certain areas of their breed. Many breeders have jumped on board in order to be more competitive and provide possibly better opportunities to market their cattle outside of their own breed, while some breeders have stayed true to what the breed was intended to be. I think we are going to look back, and it may not be all that far in the distant future, and thank those breeders who stayed true. I agree with what was said, it seems all the breeds are selecting for the same traits, which is going to eventually lead us to a time when all breeds are going to be the same and we are going to lose the diversity that was once present. The reason for this is that they are all selecting for same traits and if a calf possesses those traits we praise it, rather it maintains breed characteristic or not. I think my biggest eye opening experience for this came with goats, yes goats. Now I am no goat expert, but I have judged a good many, and even showed them a short while when I was younger. So I can tell you a good goat when I see one, and tell you where one needs to be fixed. Anyway a few years ago I was working for a farm and we also had a fledgling boer goat herd. Now our main goal was research, and we sold some show whethers. But we also showed a lot of the does we kept. Anyway I had gone through the herd and picked what I thought were the best doelings from that crop of kids to keep and show. And there were some nice doelings in the group. They went to some shows and got slaughtered and we just couldnt understand. Then our herd consultant came one day to tell us which ones he would keep and which to sell, etc. The does I picked were the bottom of his group, so I asked him to explain. And he told me one little thing, breed character. He said if we were just producing show whethers it would be one thing, but trying to maintain a registered herd and show does they would kill us on it. You want to know the only breed character they were missing, the "roman noses". These does were awesomely built, but they were either flat faced and a few even slightly dish faced, and he said the judges would hang us out to dry on it. So I went to a couple shows and watched and he was right. There were some great does gettin buried for lacing this little bit of breed character. Their reason, if the animals didnt posess the breed character how could we expect them to pass on the traits of the breed, either bad or good.
Thining back it maes sense, there are many different breeds of cattle for a reason. They all have a different purpose. If we make all the breeds the same then we inevitably take some breed away from its purpose and leave some purpose unfilled. I am not saying that these crossed matings are bad, it gives highbred vigor and commercial cattleman have been doing it for yrs in order to create a herd that produced what the market wanted and to do it in their climate or situation. The downside is the commercial cattleman went to the purebred breeders to find the breeds that delivered what they needed to cross with something else, and put together a cross of breeds to meet their needs. If all the breeds are the same they will no longer have the ability to do that, which wouldnt be an issue if we new that the market and demand for a certain type of animal was going to always be ther same. but we now that isnt the case, demand and desire will change, and if all the cattle are the same, we wont be able to change to meet that desire without again importing cattle from another country. This isnt a worldwide industry issue, its an American issue. I dont disagree with improving breeds, but I do get concerned with the total lack of concern for maintaining breed character. Its also in my opinion the problem with purebred calves getting classed out at shows. With all the "outlaw" blood as it was put earlier, there are many man registered animals that do not meet the characteristics set forth by the breed their registered with, but in the registered world the papers are all that matters, yet in a classification situation its all phenotype, and the truth is that a lot of registered calves are farther away from their breed standards than the heinz 57 crosses that show up.