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Emphasis on resilience in dairy cattle breeding: Possibilities and consequences
C Bengtsson1, J R Thomasen1, M Kargo2
1VikingGenetics, 8960 Randers, Denmark.
Journal of Dairy Science
|July 21, 2022
Summary
Modern dairy cattle breeding goals may negatively impact resilience traits. Increasing the focus on resilience indicators like body condition score and log-transformed daily deviation from lactation curve (LnVAR) can improve true resilience (TR).
Area of Science:
- Animal Science
- Genetics
- Dairy Cattle Breeding
Background:
- Modern dairy cattle breeding often prioritizes production traits.
- This focus may lead to unintended negative consequences for animal resilience.
- Resilience indicators are crucial for sustainable dairy farming.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of current dairy cattle breeding goals on resilience.
- To evaluate strategies for improving resilience through breeding goal adjustments.
- To assess the genetic gain for true resilience (TR) and resilience indicators.
Main Methods:
- Simulated consequences of increasing weight on resilience indicators and TR.
- Utilized a pseudogenomic simulation approach with two European environments.
- Stochastically simulated ten different breeding goal scenarios.
Main Results:
- Current breeding goals likely result in negative genetic gain for TR and indicators like LnVAR.
- Increasing breeding goal weight for resilience indicators (e.g., body condition score, LnVAR) can reverse negative trends.
- While resilience breeding improved beef, fertility, and udder health, economic compensation for milk production loss was insufficient.
Conclusions:
- Adjusting breeding goals to include resilience indicators like LnVAR or TR can significantly enhance true resilience.
- Cost-effective, large-scale measurement of traits like body condition score and LnVAR is feasible for breeding programs.
- Estimating economic values for resilience is essential for optimizing future dairy cow breeding goals.
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