Holstein World: What kind of plan can we use today?

Marj & Dick: If you are looking to build cows that have good longevity, greater ability to avoid culling, improved ability to breed back, greater ability to avoid mastitis, more ability to calve easily with a live calf, and more durability then you may be asking how to consider all of these various traits including at least moderate amounts of production in your genetic program. Because of the number of traits, and their different genetic spreads and economic values, it is not recommended to select on traits individually; instead a more balanced approach is recommended. This balanced approach involves:

Starting with a balanced index which includes a majority of the key traits:
 More longevity
 Positive fertility
 Favorable calving ability and fewer stillbirths
 Mastitis resistance/Udder health
 Improved udders
 More sound feet & legs
 More modern frames (avoiding overly large cows and very angular cows)
 Avoids putting limits on Type

Holstein World: What are your predictions for the future of health traits and how they will affect breeder’s buying decisions?

Marj & Dick: We believe we can predict with confidence that over the next decade that on a global basis we will see genetic evaluations for additional health and reproductive traits become available, and the existing evaluations will be improved. Once the evaluations are available, we should expect genetic progress.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 16th, 2007 at 9:50 am by sschmidt and is filed under Guest Blogger Series. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.