Mr. Jones is a pig farmer. For many years, he has fed his pigs the food left over from the local university cafeteria, which is known to be low in protein, deficient in vitamins, and downright untasty. However, the food is free, and his pigs don’t complain. One day a salesman from a feed company visits Mr. Jones. The salesman claims that his company sells a new, high-protein, vitamin-enriched feed that enhances weight gain in pigs. Although the feed is expensive, the salesman claims that the increased weight gain of the pigs will more than pay for the cost of the feed, increasing Mr. Jones’s profit. Mr. Jones responds that he took a genetics class at the university and that he has conducted some genetic experiments on his pigs; specifically, he has calculated the narrow-sense heritability of weight gain for his pigs and found it to be 0.98. Mr. Jones says that this heritability value indicates that 98% of the variance in weight gain among his pigs is determined by genetic differences, and therefore the new pig feed can have little effect on the growth of his pigs. He concludes that the feed would be a waste of his money. The salesman doesn’t dispute Mr. Jones’s heritability estimate, but he still claims that the new feed can significantly increase weight gain in Mr. Jones’s pigs. Who is correct and why?
Mr. Jones is a pig farmer. For many years, he has fed his pigs the
food left over from the local university cafeteria, which is known to
be low in protein, deficient in vitamins, and downright untasty.
However, the food is free, and his pigs don’t complain. One day a
salesman from a feed company visits Mr. Jones. The salesman
claims that his company sells a new, high-protein, vitamin-enriched
feed that enhances weight gain in pigs. Although the feed is
expensive, the salesman claims that the increased weight gain of the
pigs will more than pay for the cost of the feed, increasing Mr.
Jones’s profit. Mr. Jones responds that he took a genetics class at
the university and that he has conducted some genetic experiments
on his pigs; specifically, he has calculated the narrow-sense
heritability of weight gain for his pigs and found it to be 0.98. Mr.
Jones says that this heritability value indicates that 98% of the
variance in weight gain among his pigs is determined by genetic
differences, and therefore the new pig feed can have little effect on
the growth of his pigs. He concludes that the feed would be a waste
of his money. The salesman doesn’t dispute Mr. Jones’s heritability
estimate, but he still claims that the new feed can significantly
increase weight gain in Mr. Jones’s pigs. Who is correct and why?
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