The article presents the results of research on the evaluation of the development of dairy cattle characteristics in Holstein breed of different selection using entropy-information analysis (EIA). According to the studied indicators of dairy productivity their determinism is low, because there are many factors which influence the development of the signs. The degree of organization and informative content for Holstein breed cows of German and Ukrainian selection in adjacent generations has been established according to the basis characteristics of productivity, reproductive and adaptive ability of animals. The highest level of prevalence was characterized by signs of fat and protein content in milk as in the firstborn Holstein cows of German and Ukrainian breeding. Comparing to mothers, daughters have not only the highest level of informative content, but also have a bigger number of determinism. The probable influence of the «generation» factor was established only on the content of fat in milk. The smallest values of absolute organization the system were characterized by signs, the development of which is largely due to factors of environment. Signs which characterize reproductive and adaptive abilities of cows generally have lower entropy evaluations. This indicates their higher determinism and, consequently, biological importance. Especially it is true for the duration of the dry period in cows of the Holstein breed of German breeding. It is known that it causes physiological processes in the transitional period between two lactations and, accordingly to this, it influences the milk productivity of cows, especially, in the next lactation. Typically, according to the two signs (the duration of the first lactation and the duration of the given-birth period), we determined the probable effect of background (breeding) on the degree of their determinism (in both cases: P < 0.05). At the same time, according to these features in animals of German breeding the level of organization was higher than for Ukrainian selection of cows, regardless of generation. Thus, the use of EIA allows determining the effect of selection on the development of signs in dairy cattle.