Unwarranted publications?

Authors: Clark RG, Lewis KHC
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 25, Issue 11, pp 355, Nov 1977
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: General
Subject Terms: Veterinary profession
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: As a co-author of a paper criticised by Webster in his letter-to-the-editor (N.Z. Vet. J. 25:) I would support your decision to publish the paper “Aspects of Reproduction in N.Z. Dairy Herds. 1. Gestation Length” (N.Z. Vet. J. 24: 243-252) in this Journal. Your critic seems over-awed by the use of large numbers of breeding records which he concludes were subjected to “elaborate statistical analysis” involving “inevitable wear and tear on expensive calculating machines”. When Webster was active on the N.Z. Council 25 years ago when the Journal was founded, extensive field surveys may have required “a large expenditure of highly paid labour” and prolonged machine calculations. But computers were used in this study, and their use is important in modem-day A.B. programmes where fewer and fewer sires are used with increasing number of cows. Such extensive sire usage in terms of increased production must be monitored in terms of associated, but unexpected, changes in other parameters which may also be inherited…

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