Using Big Data and Genomics to Create the Ultimate Dairy Cow
Building Better Dairy Cows Brian Robert Marshall via Wikimedia What happens when you mash up Big Data, genomics, and a whole lot of Holstein dairy cows? You get the best bull in America. In The Atlantic today there's a great piece on Badger-Bluff Fanny Freddie, the Holstein bull that science says is the best among America's 8 million dairy cows. This story is as much about data as it is genomics or selective breeding. Freddie, as the bull is known, isn't so much a product of any special circumstances as he is a consequence of years and years of meticulous record keeping in the dairy business that has generated enough data to allow researchers to connect the dots between certain markers in the genome and the relatively few physical traits desired by dairy producers--milk production, protein in the milk, longevity, fat in the milk, udder quality, etc. These data-driven projections are...