Resilience and Robustness in the Service of Longevity and Sustainable Efficiency in Dairy Production

Dairy cattle industries navigating increasingly frequent climate disruptions and volatile input costs must maintain productivity while simultaneously minimizing environmental impacts. This article examines how resilience (ability to recover from short-term disturbances) and robustness (capacity for long-term adaptation to challenging environments) contribute to longevity and lifetime efficiency in farm animals. Resilience reduces aging costs by enhancing recovery from environmental perturbations, e.g., health challenges, whereas robustness involves resource allocation strategies that facilitate survival in constraining environments. Both traits exhibit moderate heritability, offering opportunities for genetic improvement. However, their expression varies significantly across environments, necessitating context-specific selection approaches. Simulation studies, using models that incorporate robustness and resilience mechanisms, demonstrate that genotype-by-environment interactions strongly influence the economic and environmental benefits of selecting for these traits. In conclusion, incorporating resilience and robustness into breeding objectives can improve lifetime efficiency, particularly in challenging environments, but their economic value must be evaluated carefully in relation to specific production systems and anticipated future conditions.