In addition to being polygenic, quantitative characteristics are frequently influenced by environmental factors. It is often useful to know how much of the variation in a quantitative characteristic is due to genetic differences and how much is due to environmental differences. The proportion of the total phenotypic variation that is due to genetic differences is known as the heritability. Consider a dairy farmer who owns several hundred milk cows. The farmer notices that some cows consistently produce more milk than others. The nature of these differences is important to the profitability of his dairy operation. If the differences in milk production are largely genetic in origin, then the farmer may be able to boost milk production by selectively breeding the cows that produce the most milk. On the other hand, if the differences are largely environmental in origin, selective breeding will have little effect, and the farmer might better boost milk production by adjusting the environmental factors associated with higher milk production. To determine the extent of genetic and environmental influences on variation in a characteristic, phenotypic variation in that characteristic must be partitioned into components attributable to different factors.