Skip to main content

Education

In the education portion of this site you can read articles that help you get acquainted with genetics. These articles help one to learn a few basic genetic terms, why genetics are important to the dairy industry, selective breeding, and some insight on a dairy simulator game for the classroom.

  • Intro Genetics: Here you will learn some basic genetics terminology and how genetics and genetic testing relate to the dairy industry.
  • 4-H Fundamentals of Genetic Evaluation: This page has resources for teaching the application of genomics to a junior or high school audience.  It includes background information, a lesson plan, and a short quiz.
  • Dairy Simulation Update: This article describes a dairy farm simulator that was tried for the first time in our college course this year. It shows information on how the program was run and students’ suggestions for future improvement.
  • Chromosomes – QTL: This article explains what a QTL is and how it can be used for production, confirmation and overall health.  You can follow the web links for these major trait categories and click on individual chromosomes to discover research articles on specific genetic regions and mutations affecting traits.
  • Producer Usage of Genetics: Here you will learn more about selective breeding and the ethical debate surrounding it.