Economic basis for the Nordic Total Merit Index

Abstract

Within a group of cooperating countries, all breeding animals are judged according to the same criteria if a joint breeding goal is applied in these countries. This makes it easier for dairy farmers to compare national and foreign elite bulls and may lead to more selection across borders. However, a joint breeding goal is only an advantage if the countries share the same production environment. In this study, we investigated whether the development of a joint breeding goal for each of the major dairy cattle breeds across Denmark, Finland, and Sweden would be an advantage compared with national breeding goals. For that purpose, economic values for all breeding goal traits in the 3 countries were derived, and estimated rank correlations between bulls selected for a national breeding goal and a joint breeding goal were compared. The economic values within country were derived by means of an objective bio-economic model, and the basic situation in each of the 3 production environments was based on an average dairy cattle herd with regard to production system, production level, and management strategy. The common Nordic economic values for each trait were calculated as the average of that specific trait in each of the 3 production environments. Balanced breeding goals were obtained in all situations because the derived economic values for traits related to health, fertility, milk production, and longevity were sizeable. For both Nordic Red Dairy Cattle and Nordic Holstein, the estimated rank correlations between bulls selected for a national breeding goal and a joint breeding goal were very high. Thus, a joint breeding goal within breed is feasible for Denmark, Finland, and Sweden.

Genome-wide Association Studies for Female Fertility Traits in Chinese and Nordic Holsteins

“…Poor female fertility could cause considerable economic loss as a consequence of increased additional inseminations, veterinary treatments and involuntary culling. Nordic countries are well known for putting higher economic weights on female fertility traits in the selection index, and are also among the countries of highest genetic levels on fertility 2 . A recent investigation, however, suggested that genetic progresses for female fertility traits in Nordic countries were still unsatisfactory 3 , which might be because the traits have low heritability, unfavorable genetic correlations with milk yield traits and are measured late in life 4 .…”

Estimation of genetic parameters and heterosis for longevity in crossbred Danish dairy cattle

“…During the last decades, the focus on including longevity and functional traits (mainly fertility, health, and conformation) in dairy cattle breeding goals has increased throughout the world (Leitch, 1994;Miglior et al, 2005;Kargo et al, 2014). Longevity is a complex trait that is highly affected by production and functional traits as well as other factors such as herd management and the farmer's decisions (Berry et al, 2005).…”

The effect of CAPN1 and CAST gene variations on meat quality traits in Finnish Aberdeen Angus and Nordic Red Cattle populations

“…The income from beef has been generally low for dairy farms in Finland and this has reduced motivation to improve beef quality traits of dairy herds (Hietala and Juga 2017). Therefore beef traits are not used for dairy cattle breeding schemes (Hietala and Juga 2017) and they are not included in the current Nordic Total Merit (NTM) index for NRC (Kargo et al 2014). However, Hietala and Juga (2017) concluded that in production systems similar to Finland, where the majority of produced beef originates from dairy herds and beef production fall below consumption, adding beef traits in the breeding program for dairy breeds could enable more sustainable and profitable milk and beef production.…”