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A Method to Define Breeding Goals for Sustainable Dairy Cattle Production

H. M. Nielsen^*,1, L. G. Christensen and J. Ødegård^*

^* Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, PO Box 5003, N-1432 Ås, Norway
Department of Large Animal Sciences, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University. Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1970 Frederiksberg C, Denmark

¹ Corresponding author: hanne.marie.nielsen{at}umb.no

The objective of this study was to present a method to define breeding goals for sustainable dairy cattle production by adding nonmarket values to market economic values for functional traits in the breeding goal. A nonmarket value can represent the value of improved animal welfare or societal influences for animal production. The nonmarket value for mastitis resistance, conception rate, and stillbirth were derived based on how much farmers or breeding companies were willing to lose in selection response for milk yield to improve functional traits. The desired response for milk yield corresponding to a given percent loss was obtained using desired gain indices. By allowing a 5% loss in the selection response for milk yield, the nonmarket value was found to be 40.4 for mastitis resistance, 16.1 for conception rate, and –9.7 for stillbirth. The nonmarket value increased proportionally with increasing loss in the selection response for milk yield, but the selection response was lower for conception rate than for mastitis resistance because of differences in market economic value and heritability. To increase the response for conception rate, the nonmarket value was also derived for 2 situations, in which the desired responses for milk yield, mastitis resistance, and conception rate were specified. The method can be used to define breeding goals for sustainable production and to increase the response for traits that are at critically low levels. When defining breeding goals for sustainable production, breeding organizations should predict the selection response based on market economic value and add non-market value for traits with unacceptable selection responses.

Key Words: breeding objective • desired gain index • sustainability