Dairy producers will soon have two new traits of significant economic value to consider in their breeding programs

Last week, as the North American International Livestock Expo in Louisville, Ky., finished up, it was easy to admire all the beautiful cows

In December, dairy cattle sustainability will add a genetic tool with the introduction of the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding’s (CDCB) Feed Saved trait in Holstein sire evaluations

Getting cows pregnant not only returns them to productivity quicker, the value of those calves can provide a significant revenue stream for the dairy

The August 2020 Hoard’s Dairyman Bull List can be downloaded. The list includes the top bulls for Holsteins, Jerseys, Brown Swiss, Red and Whites, Guernsey, Ayrshire, and Milking Shorthorns

Genetic evaluations for calving ease will appear significantly different on August 11, the Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) and partner organizations have announced

There are two methods that could help generate genetic evaluations for lifetime economic merit. We could directly determine economic merit by tracking income and expenses for all cows. Keeping track of...

Calving ease evaluations have evolved immensely over the decades. When first released in 1977, 28% of heifers and 15% of cows needed help calving

“Remember that a cow is a mother, and her calf is a baby.” — W.D. Hoard

Domestic semen sales of beef breeds skyrocketed 128% in the past two years to reach 5.8 million units. That’s up from 2017’s 2.5 million units

Animals’ genetic “proofs” will look markedly different with the April 7 genetic evaluations, as it’s time for the every-five-year base change

If there are any skeptics that do not believe in the power of genetic selection, then they have been ignoring the facts. The magical history of genetic selection has translated into more milk per cow

Several enhancements will take effect for the April 7 triannual dairy genetic evaluations, with the most noticeable update being the genetic base

THe COLLECTIVE dairy world should be shouting acclamations from the mountaintops. We’ve made enormous strides in production per cow and that’s helped us double down on our efforts to reduce

Many scientists and animal breeders are keenly interested in directly altering a portion of an organism’s genome to incorporate specific traits

Most breeders have some sense that our current dairy cattle population has undergone a bottleneck due to intensive selection for yield and conformation

There’s no doubt that inbreeding has been a topic heavy on dairy farmers’ minds as we’ve progressed through the genomic era

There is no doubt that genomics has made significant inroads with over 3 million dairy animals being tested in the past decade

It’s been 10 years since genomic testing was introduced to the dairy industry. This valuable tool has provided breeders across the globe the opportunity for much faster genetic progress