The ability to clone a potentially unlimited number of individuals would have innumerable applications. Identical individuals, or clones, would be perfect controls for experiments because all variation would be due to environmental factors such as treatments. Thus, fewer numbers of animals would be needed to make significant comparisons between treatments. In production agriculture, identical animals would require identical management systems. Clonal lines adapted to certain parts of the country, either naturally or by genetic manipulation, could be distributed to achieve maximum production. Given certain conditions (environmental stipulations such as rations and weather conditions) a performance guarantee could be provided with a set of clones at the time of purchase. Breeders could benefit from transferring a clonal line of frozen embryos to a clonal line of recipient females, because ease of giving birth and preweaning weight gains would be similar. Feedlots would benefit because a clonal line would perform as expected, thus guaranteeing a profit. Packing houses could purchase certain clonal lines that have identical meat characteristics, such as flavor, size, and marbling. Consumers would benefit from a more uniform product in their freezers. If this sounds like utopia for both science and agriculture, it is becoming fact. The technology necessary to achieve these goals is currently inefficient, but it does work and will be improved.

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