Genetic Improvement of Farmed Animals by Geoff Simm & Geoff Pollott & Raphael Mrode & Ross Houston & Karen Marshall

Author:Geoff Simm & Geoff Pollott & Raphael Mrode & Ross Houston & Karen Marshall [Simm, Geoff]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: CABI
Published: 2020-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

8 Dairy Cattle Breeding

Introduction

The first seven chapters in this book concentrated on the scientific principles of genetic improvement. The aim of the next six chapters is to give some more details of the current and possible future applications of these principles in practical cattle, sheep, goat, poultry, pig and fish breeding. Chapters 8 to 12 follow a similar format. (Chapter 13 has a slightly modified format because of the wide range of species involved in aquaculture.) They begin by examining breeding goals in a general way, to identify animal characteristics likely to be important in genetic improvement programmes. Next, they examine breeds and crosses in widespread use, and methods of selection within breeds, including systems of testing, traits recorded and methods of genetic evaluation. Finally, each chapter has a section on the evidence for genetic improvement and its value, and a list of practical guidelines on selection. We start with dairy cattle breeding as there is probably more information in the public domain about dairy cattle breeding than about any other farmed species, so this is a good starting point to illustrate the principles of genetic improvement in practice.

Most of the examples of dairy cattle breeding discussed in this chapter are from the UK, elsewhere in Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. However, they are intended to illustrate issues of wide relevance in dairy cattle breeding, at least in temperate areas. To show the context into which production in these countries fits, Fig. 8.1 shows the world production of cow milk by continent in 2016. Europe had the highest production, accounting for about 33% of global milk production. Figure 8.2 shows the amount of milk produced in 2016 by the 15 highest-producing countries in the world. The US was by far the largest producer, but The Russian Federation, India, several European countries, New Zealand and Australia featured in the top 15.

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