Feed saved breeding values for Australian dairy cattle — ASN Events
  1. Schedule
  2. Concurrent 7 - Breeding objectives & economics II
  3. Feed saved breeding values for Australian dairy cattle

Feed saved breeding values for Australian dairy cattle (#43)

Jennie Pryce 1 , Oscar Gonzalez-Recio 1 , Gert Nieuwhof 2 , Bill Wales 3 , Mike Coffey 4 , Ben Hayes 1 , Mike Goddard 5
  1. Agriculture Victoria Research, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  2. Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
  3. Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Ellinbank, VIC, Australia
  4. SRUC, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland
  5. Faculty of Vet. and Agric. Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

A new breeding value that includes the amount of feed saved through improved metabolic efficiency and reduced maintenance requirements is described. The breeding value includes a genomic breeding value for residual feed intake, which is available for Holsteins only, combined with either genomic or pedigree estimated breeding values for body weight predicted using type traits. The standard deviation of estimated breeding values for feed saved was 65.6 kg/year. The mean reliability of feed saved was 0.37 and standard deviation was 0.06, with the range from 0.24 to 0.74.  The breeding value, which will be known as “feed saved”, has been available for dairy farmers and breeding companies to use in their selection decisions from April 2015.

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