It's intriguing to see how traits pass from one generation to the next. Your biggest kids can come from the tiniest mothers and the most gorgeous does can have the plainest babies. This year, while watching our kid crop develop, we noticed a fairly average doe nursing a beautiful new doeling. On further examination, we found that the baby was the spitting image of her grandmother. Guess the coloring just skipped a generation. Similarly, other traits like parasite resistance, twin production, and hoof growth can pass in and out of the genetic pool. According to an article by Gail Bowman: "It is also said that it takes three generations to breed out a trait. That would only be true if the trait is not carried as a recessive gene in each generation, in one or the other parent. In other words, it can be difficult to completely remove an undesirable trait from your herd, once you have it." Just goes to show the importance of bringing only top of the line genetics into your herd.
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