Different goals, common ground: A global perspective on dairy breeding objectives

A global comparison of dairy cow breeding objectives provides valuable insight into areas of convergence and divergence, helping identify populations with compatible breeding goals for sourcing germplasm to strengthen domestic genetic improvement programs. The objective of this study was primarily to compare the rankings of Holstein-Friesian artificial insemination sires across countries on the total merit index value of each country. The study also examined how different countries present estimates of genetic merit and how frequently they update their base populations; Denmark, Finland, and Sweden (DFS) were treated as a single group. The partial correlation among 22 indexes (i.e., 21 national indexes plus the Holstein Association USA Total Performance Index) was estimated for 49,450 Holstein(-Friesian) sires born post-2000 with a reliability >70%, after adjustment for genetic trends. The partial correlations among the ranking of sires on different indexes varied from 0.24 to 0.87 with 41% of the pairwise correlations being stronger than 0.70 but just 11% being stronger than 0.80. Notably, indexes designed for indoor confinement-based systems had, on average, weaker correlations with grazing-focused indexes from Ireland and New Zealand (0.48 to 0.50). Stronger average correlations (0.69) were observed among the ranking of sires on confinement-based indexes; the correlation between the Irish Economic Breeding Index and New Zealand Breeding Worth was 0.56. When limited to just the milk production components of the different indexes, the partial correlations among the ranking of sires on subindexes were, on average, 0.78, varying from 0.29 (Uruguay with Poland) to 0.96 (Japan with Spain). Countries differ in their approach to trait weighting. Across the 21 countries examined in this study, 38% derived the weights assigned to traits solely from economic models or functions, whereas an additional 29% of the countries adopted only a desired-gains approach. The remainder of countries adopted a hybrid strategy, applying economic values to certain traits, typically the production traits, while using desired gains for others (e.g., the Netherlands, DFS). In some cases, initial weights were derived from economic principles but subsequently adjusted to achieve specific desired gains (e.g., Canada, Australia, Uruguay). Of the 21 milk production subindexes compared, 8 had a negative weight on milk yield (i.e., Canada, DFS, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, Uruguay), 4 had a positive value (i.e., United States, Poland, Spain, South Africa), whereas Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, France, Slovenia, Italy, Israel, Switzerland, and Hungary did not consider milk yield in their total merit indexes. With the exception of Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, Israel, and Uruguay who presented genetic evaluations of individual animals as PTA, genetic evaluations of milk production traits are presented as EBVs by all other countries. Of the 21 countries, 10% update their genetic evaluation base population more than once per year, 38% update it annually, 38% update it every 5 yr, and the remaining 14% update it periodically. Health traits are increasingly being considered for inclusion in future breeding objectives as are traits associated with both environmental impact and feed efficiency. The findings underscore how economic, biological, genetic, and policy factors shape national breeding objectives, helping interpret international differences in genetic trends and performance outcomes.