National Milk Records shares 9 billion rows of data with the industry to develop new breeding traits

Big data helps develop new breeding traits
Big data helps develop new breeding traits

National Milk Records has shared 9 billion rows of data gathered via routine milk recording with AHDB Dairy, which heralds the starting point for developing new breeding traits.

“Identifying and breeding cows that can produce the same amount of milk but from less feed is vitally important to maintain the sustainability of the GB dairy industry,” says NMR Managing Director Andy Warne, who made the historic handover.

Mr Warne explains how milk samples will help achieve this: “Each milk sample we test generates 1,060 data points that can tell us more about the health of the cow. We’ve used the data already as part of our Energy Balance service and it’s this information that will help us breed more efficient cows in the future.”

The new feed efficiency traits could be available as soon as next year and will be another tool to help producers improve their profitability. “We anticipate we’ll be able to provide genetic information for all the Holstein bulls used across the industry because of the volume of data,” says Marco Winters from AHDB Dairy.

NMR and AHDB aim to develop new breeding traits linked to feed efficiency. Once available, the new traits will also be combined with genomic testing.

National Milk Records is a leading supplier of milk recording services in the UK, providing management information on individual cow's performance in terms of milk quality, yield and fertility. NMR supplies aggregate data to over 35 dairy industry bodies including milk buyers, AHDB Dairy and breed societies as well as forming the basis for food provenance schemes for retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer.