Top genetic traits to improve milk yield revealed

Dairy farmer Willie Baillie now focuses on improving the yield of fat and protein in the milk he produces
Dairy farmer Willie Baillie now focuses on improving the yield of fat and protein in the milk he produces

The genetic traits dairy farmers should focus on if they are aiming to increase their herd’s daily lifetime milk yields have been revealed.

Research has shown that the genetic indexes which have the most impact on average daily lifetime yield are £PLI (profitable lifetime index), closely followed by fat (kg), lifespan, and protein (kg).

Other important traits include fertility, milk yield and health traits such as mastitis, lameness and somatic cell count (SCC).

The research was undertaken by AHDB. Head of Animal Genetics, Marco Winters, said: “Lifespan came out very strongly in the research which is not surprising as we are looking for animals which will live and provide milk for longer, so lifespan really is vital for farmers looking to improve their herd genetics.

“But health traits are also clearly very important because of course healthy animals are more likely to stay in the milking herd and produce strong yields.”

Scottish dairy farmer Willie Baillie has recently made the decision to focus on improving the yield of fat and protein in the milk he produces.

He already achieves very high daily milk yields - 19.5 litres of milk per cow per day - but he feels breeding for fat and protein is getting more important.

Mr Baillie says: “At the moment we are really focused on fat and protein percentages because that’s one area our herd’s fairly low in, probably because we’ve always been on a liquid milk contract and that wasn’t something you selected for in the past.

“While we are still on a liquid milk contract I do think these fat and protein traits will become more important to the whole industry so we only select now for pluses in those areas, and for fertility, because I don’t think it matters what system you are on, fertility can be the difference between profit and loss.”

Over the last few years he has seen genetic gains through using this approach and his herd has moved from the top 20% to the top 15% of UK herds in terms of genetic merit, measured by the herd average for £PLI.