Ideal Alpaca Library

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The ABCs of EPDs

At first blush, animal breeding seems relatively simple. If you believe ‘like
begets like’ all you need to do is mate similar animals. If you want a further
edge up - study pedigree. If that is not good enough, you can measure phenotype making sure only the best are included in your breeding plan. The problem is none of these strategies is particularly effective, and many of the beliefs that breeders rely on are black magic. Myth makes the animal improvement equation more complex than it need be. Before we can get on to steady measurable improvement, we must sweep a few myths out of the closet.

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