Thread: Do you know how lucky we are?

As any farmer will tell you, what you put down an animals throat is more important than it’s genetics when it comes to growth and size. Once you get good nutrition, genetics comes into play. Average looking animals can have good genetics but can only show it if they are in the right environments.


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One of the estate stalkers in Scotland told me a story on the hill that bears that out. He said a mate of his caught a stag calf and kept it well fed in one of his paddocks. It developed into big Royal with very heavy timber and was far more impressive than the wild stags. That suggests that the genetics are there but the feed and conditions don’t allow the animals to reach that potential.

Originally Posted by Dicko

As any farmer will tell you, what you put down an animals throat is more important than it’s genetics when it comes to growth and size. Once you get good nutrition, genetics comes into play. Average looking animals can have good genetics but can only show it if they are in the right environments.


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I was listening to the Meat Eater podcast a couple of months ago. Fascinating discussion with a biologist who studied blacktail deer from two distinct geographical areas in the USA, one with particularly good genetics for large bodied animals and good heads, the other famous for crap heads.

Essentially, what they found was that genetics had next to nothing to do with it. They took a 1 day old fawn from each area, live captured and raised in a monitored and controlled environment with the same amount of feed/exercise etc. The one from the "good" area grew huge with impressive antlers and the other one never got big or grew real timber. They then mated these stags with captive hinds (from both areas to remove issues around the mother's genetics). Their offspring turned out to be about the same size (huge) and with similar antler size (the stag from the "poor" genetic line had double the antler growth of his dad). They expect that there will be no determinable difference in the two blood lines by the next generation (when considering body size and antler growth).

The conclusion they reached is that the genetics had very little to do with it, and in fact what drove the "good" vs "poor" heads and body size was the gestational nutrition available to the mother. In areas where the pregnant hind has ample feed and nutrients the fawn gets a massive head start, and no matter how good conditions after-birth are, the stag who's mum didn't get as much tucker will never catch up.

Originally Posted by Dicko

As any farmer will tell you, what you put down an animals throat is more important than it’s genetics when it comes to growth and size. Once you get good nutrition, genetics comes into play. Average looking animals can have good genetics but can only show it if they are in the right environments.

As the old farming saying goes; "90% feeding; 10% breeding" is the key to good animals