A BETTER COW FOR A BETTER FUTURE AN IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF SELECT SIRES’ HERD HEALTH PROFIT DOLLARS (HHP$) INDEX Chuck Sattler, vice president of genetic programs Select Sires Inc.
Genetic improvement is a long-term process that requires foresight, strategy and consistent planning across several generations. With these conditions in mind, it’s essential to prioritize the most important traits based on broad industry trends and economics using a selection index.
The state of the industry Today’s dairy herds are optimizing the value of calves and breeding more dairy cows to beef sires. This breeding strategy is happening around the globe and there looks to be a permanent shift in dairy herd management. With this strategy, we are seeing a steady decline in heifer inventories. Smaller heifer inventories means reduced culling and reduced turnover rates in the milking herd. This, in turn, means we will be milking more and more older cows. This is a good thing. Recent studies1 show the economic optimal culling rate is between 25 and 30 percent. This is lower than the industry average, so less culling makes economic sense for most dairy farms. As always, the more we can shift culling from involuntary to voluntary helps increase herd profits. For example, there’s a better return on investment with older cows because they are more productive than two-year-olds. Some other benefits of reduced culling include reduced heifer raising expenses and more opportunity to diversify income with beef x dairy calves. Tighter management of dairy heifer inventories is a chance to review dairy sire selection strategies. With the need to reduce culling, it makes sense to focus sire selection on making improvement in the areas that most frequently cause cows to leave the herd. These reasons will vary from herd to herd but most usually boil down to four key reasons – failure to get pregnant, mastitis, low production or lameness. HEIFERS FOR MILK COW REPLACEMENTS EXPECTED TO CALVE IN NEXT YEAR
Source: USDA, NASS Cattle Inventory
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