The primary responsibility of the Genetics Unit is the direction of selective breeding. Due to a variety of bureaucratic, biological, and statistical barriers this effort is moderately futile, but every September and October the numbers are crunched and the master breeding plan is put out.
With no real economic value for camels other than their capacity for work, breeding is conducted with the aim of increasing draught ability, while carefully maintaining the genetic diversity and population structure of the herd. So we take three biometric measurements long ago found to correlate with strength and billet the males accordingly (we do not select for females; due to their long intergestational period it is highly uneconomical not to mate them).
There are lots of problems with this approach. First, it constitutes indirect selection: we are choosing males based on biometric traits rather than actual work ability. Second, the study that pushed those traits to the forefront utilized primitive statistics that confuse what's really going on (I'm working on new numbers). Finally, while the assumption that 'big dads have big sons' is common sense, the heritability of strength is unknown so we have no clue how effective our efforts may be.
Winter approaches, and that means it's business time. Whether or not our selections are having an effect, we'll get some good-looking calves in a year.
With no real economic value for camels other than their capacity for work, breeding is conducted with the aim of increasing draught ability, while carefully maintaining the genetic diversity and population structure of the herd. So we take three biometric measurements long ago found to correlate with strength and billet the males accordingly (we do not select for females; due to their long intergestational period it is highly uneconomical not to mate them).
There are lots of problems with this approach. First, it constitutes indirect selection: we are choosing males based on biometric traits rather than actual work ability. Second, the study that pushed those traits to the forefront utilized primitive statistics that confuse what's really going on (I'm working on new numbers). Finally, while the assumption that 'big dads have big sons' is common sense, the heritability of strength is unknown so we have no clue how effective our efforts may be.
Winter approaches, and that means it's business time. Whether or not our selections are having an effect, we'll get some good-looking calves in a year.
The most valuable camels this side of the Gulf:
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