Reduction of rearing cost of replacement Heifers by genomic selection

Abstract

The development of methodologies with genomic information to incorporate into genetic evaluation of animals and plants for selection purposes has been a breakthrough research of this decade. Since then, research has been focused and dedicated to obtain the most benefit out of it. Therefore, genomic selection changed the way breeding companies were operating. However, most of the research performed was focused on genetic improvement which was largely due to the fact that genomic selection played a significant role in reducing the generation interval, while increasing accuracy. But recently researchers have been becoming interested to understand if genomic selection could also assist in making farm decisions. Raising genetically superior heifers for cow replacement with minimum cost is the objective of most of dairy farmers. However, cost of raising heifer replacement has been overlooked. In this study, different herd sizes and cow replacement rates have been considered in evaluation, if genomic selection could be economically beneficial in making rearing heifer farm management decisions. Therefore, in the current study, it has been found that genomic selection could be economically beneficial in assisting farm management decisions if a farm has large herd size coupled with the practice of low replacement rates, as such farms may have more surplus heifers which farmers could select from.