Grading up

Also: upgrading, graded-up, purebred by grading

Grading up uses bulls of one breed on cows of another, or of no fixed breed, then on their daughters and granddaughters, so that each generation carries a larger share of the new breed: one half, three quarters, seven eighths and so on. Many breed societies accept animals of fifteen-sixteenths or thirty-one thirty-seconds blood as purebred. Grading up spread Holstein and Hereford cattle around the world, and in India it is used to raise local cattle toward recognised breeds such as the Gir, Sahiwal and Hariana. It is cheap compared with buying a whole herd, but it slowly replaces the original local type, which is why conservation programmes record landrace herds.

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