It's a controversial topic in breeding circles, mating fathers and
daughters.  You're trying to concentrate the genetics to multiply the effect of the good characteristics of your best animals.  This young heifer, the result of breeding a Rotokawa 688 daughter back to 688, would seem to be the beneficiary of  the desired effect.

And here at Thistle Hill, we now have eight outstanding young calves as the result of the pairing:  two bulls and six heifers.  This three-month old heifer is still down in South Carolina with her recipient mother.  She has a sister there but the rest of the siblings are here in Hume.  Not only does line breeding the best appear to achieve excellent results, there's also a uniformity in our calves that is particularly noteworthy.

The practice of line breeding, though, is controversial, as we said.  You
not only concentrate the good genes, but you also can strengthen bad
characteristics.  That's why it's important to have a really good bull to
start with and, just important, be ready to cull any calf that turns out
less than the best.  There's a chance that something will yet show up, but right now all our 688 calves seem just about perfect.  However, before offering any for sale, we'll want to watch them develop for awhile.  And down the road, we also have to answer a key question:  do we double down?

That is, do we breed these 688 daughter/grand daughters back to 688 again?