Continuity is Not Optional

We recently watched an interview[1] with a forty-year seedstock producer working in a breed supported by one of the most advanced genomic infrastructures in modern livestock agriculture. This breed has developed breed-specific genomics that rest on a dataset exceeding 1.8 million genotypes[2], the product of decades of coordinated investment, data capture, and validation at a global scale. This represents an investment measured in tens of millions of dollars, sustained over generations.

What stood out was not the overwhelming abundance of valid, breed-specific data. It was the restraint and the immovable reality of continuity, time, focused objectives, and biology that the breeder identified as the true drivers of success.

The breeder described a familiar path: identify priority traits, commit to them, and remain with those objectives long enough for the herd to respond. Even with the most advanced tools available, the timeline to become a credible seedstock producer was measured in decades, not years.

That observation aligns directly with the central thesis of Beyond Numbers: Structure, Standards, and Stewardship of the Dexter Breed in the United States – A Path Forward. Breeding progress is governed by generation interval, not enthusiasm, not genomics, not cosmetics. Genomics can sharpen selection, but it cannot compress biological time, nor can it substitute for multi-generation accountability within a single breeding program.

The interview also underscored a second reality. Genomic tools, even in breeds with extraordinary investments of capital and time, do not rescue non-generational or unfocused breeding programs. When objectives and breeder ownership shift season to season, data does not accelerate progress; it records confusion with greater precision.

Even with robust testing across 1.8 million genotypes and tens of millions of dollars invested, these tools do not constitute a breeding program. They sharpen selection only when intent, continuity, and generational accountability already exist.

This does not place the Dexter breed at a disadvantage. It removes the illusion. The path forward for a small breed is not and never was technological substitution. It is disciplined selection, stable objectives, a cadre of generational seedstock breeders, and enough time for cause and effect to play out.

Beyond Numbers established that Dexters suffer from an inverted breeder structure, with many owners, fewer generational breeders, limited continuity beyond a single generation interval, and the absence of association-breed standards. This interview did not contradict that diagnosis in the world’s premier genomic breed. It reinforced it. Time remains the currency of progress. Continuity is the road to success. Objectives and standards determine whether either one matters.

[1] Brian McCulloh and Woodhill Farms interview Iowa Beef Collective

[2] Angus Journal, Genes and Goals 2024