What are the pros and cons of inbreeding cattle?

Answer 1

The pros of inbreeding cattle are the following:

• No need to purchase any cattle to add to the herd (i.e., new breeding bulls or replacement heifers)
• No need (or almost) for vaccinations because of the maintenance of a closed herd
• Gives you the ability to find certain animals that may or may not be carriers of certain genetic defects to cull from that herd to make it more pure
• Ideal for purebred cattle herds

The cons of inbreeding cattle are:

• It is highly unrecommended to be used in commercial cow herds or even purebred/fullblood cattle that you have little to no genetic history of for every individual animal used in that herd
• Genetic quality decreases overtime, leading to physical or even genetic defects that affects the productivity of those animals
• Productivity may decrease after consecutive generations, creating smaller and smaller animals that are of lesser quality than their ancestors were.
• Health may decrease over time due to increasingly inferior genetics if used in poor-quality herds, making them less immune to diseases should they suddenly be subjected to them.
• There is a limit as to how far inbreeding should go before the introduction of new genes must be introduced into a herd to maintain its productivity without ruining the purity of that herd.