Sire selection decisions and farm profitability relationships for Ontario dairy farmers

The relationship between the relative emphasis of type and production in the sire selection decision and net farm income per cow are examined for a sample of Ontario dairy farmers. A significant positive correlation between farm profits and the genetic indices for type and production traits of selected bulls exists, but the direction of causality cannot be determined. Net farm income per cow was found to have a significant inverse association with the relative weighting between type and production in the average sire selected. In contrast, the emphasis on type relative to production was found to increase with an increase in milk yield and herd size. The results of this study show that there may be benefits to collecting the breeding, production, and economic information of selected herds. The information gathered over time would be useful for determining what factors influence breeding decisions and for determining the causality in those relationships.