The present invention relates, inter alia, to methods for determining whether or not an animal and/or its offspring is more likely than not to have an increased tolerance to heat, an increased resistance to ticks, and/or a desirable coat texture. It also provides methods for selecting or rejecting animals, one or more cells or embryos, estimating the worth of an animal, generating animals having a desired genotype/phenotype, cloning and breeding animals and herd formation.