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Estimating breeding values for feed efficiency in dairy cattle by regression on expected feed intake
M H Lidauer1, E Negussie1, E A Mäntysaari1
1Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), 31600 Jokioinen, Finland.
Animal : an International Journal of Animal Bioscience
|August 13, 2023
Summary
A new metric, regression on expected feed intake (ReFI), improves dairy cow feed efficiency selection. ReFI identified cows producing more energy-corrected milk per unit of energy intake compared to residual feed intake (RFI) or genetic residual feed intake (gRFI).
Area of Science:
- Animal Science
- Genetics
- Nutritional Physiology
Background:
- Dairy cow feed efficiency is crucial for profitability and sustainability.
- Existing metrics like residual feed intake (RFI) and genetic residual feed intake (gRFI) have limitations in accurately assessing feed utilization.
- Accurate evaluation of feed efficiency requires metrics that effectively contrast realized feed intake with expected feed intake based on physiological needs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and evaluate a novel metric, regression on expected feed intake (ReFI), for assessing feed efficiency in dairy cows.
- To compare the performance of ReFI against traditional metrics (RFI and gRFI) in terms of genetic variation, heritability, and correlation with production traits.
- To determine the superiority of ReFI in identifying genetically superior, highly efficient dairy cows.
Main Methods:
- Developed the ReFI metric by regressing dry matter intake (DMI) on expected DMI using a random regression model incorporating energy requirement formulations.
- Applied ReFI, RFI, and gRFI to a dataset of 18,581 feed efficiency records from 654 primiparous Nordic Red dairy cows.
- Estimated variance components, genetic correlations with intake and production traits, and compared the ranking and performance of cows selected by each metric.
Main Results:
- ReFI demonstrated higher estimated genetic variation (4.7%) and heritability (0.23) for feed efficiency compared to RFI or gRFI.
- ReFI was genetically uncorrelated with DMI and negatively correlated with energy-corrected milk (ECM), unlike RFI (positively correlated with DMI and metabolic BW) and gRFI (positively correlated with DMI).
- Selection based on ReFI breeding values identified cows with 12.3% higher ECM per unit of metabolisable energy intake, significantly outperforming RFI (4.3%) and gRFI (5.9%).
Conclusions:
- The ReFI metric offers a more accurate and effective approach to modeling feed utilization efficiency in dairy cattle.
- ReFI facilitates the identification of superior cows with higher milk production and improved feed conversion efficiency.
- This novel metric simplifies feed efficiency evaluation and provides breeding values directly interpretable as a percentage of feed saved.
Keywords:
Dairy cattle breedingNordic Red dairy cattleRandom regressionResidual feed intakeVariance componentsMore Related Videos
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