How Is Bull Semen Much Different Than Cloning ?

A prize bull passed away in Ireland just recently, but through his life the bull fathered over 100,000 daughters and countless sons.

Described as a "hero of Irish agriculture," Galtee Merci, a German-born Holstein, was one of the first Irish-registered artificial insemination bulls to be used in the country.
uk.news.yahoo.com...

For one animal to sire so many offspring I don't see much difference from cloning. One animal has changed the entire production of the country.

The story goes on to say this...

In terms of the modern day dairy herd in Ireland, his influence has been phenomenal with over 10 percent of the milking cow population probably related to him in some way.

That a very large percentage of animals with the same genes, and that can't be very good for diversity of the herd in the future.



You can even order frozen semen from this animal on-line.
grazinggenetics.com...

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No production animals get to have natural sex anymore because the whole process has been taken over by man. :shk:

The bull gets to ejaculate into a dummy cow and is trained to do so.

Artificial insemination has been going on for a long time. The semen is collected and then cut to the appropriate number of sperm cells and then frozen and sold.

To get the best geneticist for your heard you either buy a 100,000 dollar bull or his semen at 20 dollars a dose.

The difference in cloning is simple, the agriculturist is not making a exact copy of the bull, the cows genetic material is there also. 1/2 from the bull 1/2 from the cow= calf.

Roper