Milk markets vary by region, which is why every dairy operation has its own unique goals. Your farm’s needs and objectives aren’t the same as your neighbors', and your cows shouldn’t be treated identically since they serve different production roles.
Your genetic plan should be tailored to your herd: maximizing your milk check by focusing on your specific market targets, optimizing beef cross production through heifer inventory management and minimizing expenses by identifying areas of improvement. Because milk production is the main revenue source for dairies, the priority of your plan should be designing cows that best fit your system and maximizing milk output.
Determining your ideal cow
Before outlining how to build the ideal cow for your operation, let’s highlight a few key questions to ask yourself to identify which animals will perform best in your herd. These questions help to determine the ideal cow for you. Your answers should guide your genetic plan. To achieve your goals, you need the right genetic plan in place, and your genetic selection is determined by what you will need in the future.
- How do you get paid for your milk?
- Why do cows leave the dairy?
- What processor demands and facility changes are anticipated in the future?
- What does your herd need to look like in five years?
Cost of raising heifers
A significant amount of money goes into developing replacement heifers. Nationally, raising a dairy heifer from birth to freshening typically costs between $2,100 and $2,200 per animal, which is only considering moderate feed costs and the success of her making it to calving. When you consider the fact that she must recoup the costs of some of her penmates getting culled or not making it to calving, the cost of raising a heifer can exceed $2,600 per heifer. It is important to keep in mind that actual expenses can vary depending on the farm and regional conditions.
Knowing heifer development is costly, it is critical to make sure you are not only creating but also raising the right replacement heifers to maximize profit and minimize cost. But don’t worry, there are tools to help you do this more effectively.
Genomic tools have been around for many years on the sire side of the dairy industry; however, in the past few years, we have seen an increase of the use of the tool to rank the female side. Genomic tools help ensure that the investment you make in raising heifers is directed toward the ones with the best genetic potential, increasing the likelihood that they will perform well once they enter the milking herd.
Overall, genomic testing equips producers with valuable information that reduces costs, improves efficiency and boosts profitability. It helps identify which animals are worth developing as replacements and which productive cows should remain in the herd but be bred to beef. Ultimately, it supports building a more efficient and profitable herd for the future.
How?
Genomic testing enhances precision through the improved reliability of genetic evaluations. Reliability reflects how confident a dairy producer can be that an animal’s predicted breeding value matches its true genetic merit. Think of it essentially as a measure of margin of error. To further explain what this means, here are two examples:
- A reliability of 99 indicates that the estimated value is very likely to be close to the animal’s true value.
- Consequently, a reliability of 10 suggests there is a much greater chance that the animal’s true breeding value is different than what the data states.
Accuracy is a crucial component of genetic improvement, and it is directly tied to the reliabilities of key profit-driving dairy traits. Genomic testing significantly boosts these reliabilities and it more than doubles the reliabilities achieved through traditional parent averages. This tool accelerates genetic progress because it strengthens the confidence of each animal’s true breeding value being equal to what the data indicates. With genomics, producers can rank females more precisely and make more informed breeding decisions. Having solid, data-driven insights helps dairies operate more productively, efficiently and profitably.
You can accelerate genetic progress through a twofold approach: the development of a customized genetic plan and the implementation of genomic testing. These two facets of a genetic plan are the foundation of a profitable breeding program. This approach fast-tracks your herd’s genetic improvement, delivering better future herd performance, improving your selection accuracy of replacements and helping you make better breeding decisions. On average, herds will breed a quarter to a third of their herd differently – in terms of what gets bred sexed or beef – when they use genomic testing to rank their herd rather than parent averages.
Genetic potential determined by parent averages versus genomic testing is summed up with two phrases starting with either "I think" or "I know."
- I think this is the genetic potential = parent averages
- I know this is the genetic potential = genomic testing
Find a partner for faster progress
Executing this type of approach takes dedicated strategic thinking and proper planning, which is done by finding the right genetic partner whose focus is your success and operational goals. The greatest value in finding the right partner is the support you receive. A true partnership – one developed with your specific operation and goals in mind – gives you access to the right genetic expertise and data management. As genetic companies, we have the tools and know-how to make genetic progress faster based on your herd's operational goals.
If a herd chooses to genomic test, the benefit of the tool is the access to data that will assist you in making better breeding decisions. However, the struggle can be utilizing the data correctly. You want a partner that will provide not only the data but also deliver insights and apply them effectively into your genetic plan. The right genetic partner helps you take genomic testing from endless columns on a spreadsheet to actionable decisions that result in faster genetic progress.
Are you ready to profit from genetic progress by developing a customized genetic plan built on your goals and actionable insights from your herd’s data?
