Source: Pennsylvania State University
Managing heifer inventories on a dairy farm is not always an easy responsibility. Having too fewheifers brings a lot of risk to the future outlook and limits opportunities for strategic animal sales. Having too many heifers...
The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) has announced two significant updates for the April 2025 dairy genetic evaluations: revised lifetime merit indices and a genetic base change. These updates, approved by the CDCB Board of Directors on December...
Source: Lactanet Canada, by: Hannah Sweett, Ph.D.
Over the past few years, on farm breeding strategies have shifted to include the use of beef sire semen to breed lower genetic merit females and increase the sale value of calves. In...
One thing I love about the dairy industry is that we are always looking for ways to improve on what we are already doing…
And the McCartys are no different.
In this episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, we are heading...
What is A2 Milk?
A2 milk comes from cows that produce only the A2 variant of beta-casein protein, which makes up 30% of milk protein. This milk may be easier for humans to digest, but scientific evidence supporting health...
Source: CDCB
The CDCB and USDA AGIL team describes changes implemented for the triannual genetic evaluations on December 3, 2024, including updated calculations for Residual Feed Intake, integration of foreign evaluations with the new Rear Teat Placement in Brown Swiss,...
Source: University of Queensland
University of Queensland researchers are setting the agenda for breeding high yield, heat tolerant and disease-resistant crops and low emission cattle with excellent feed conversion efficiency as they search for the ultimate genotype.
Professor Ben Hayes from...
The Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) releases updated dairy sire summaries three times a year to help producers make informed decisions about herd genetics. Advances in genomic data and expanded trait evaluations have made it easier to identify...
In light of rising feed costs, dairy farms can boost profitability by focusing on whole-farm feed efficiency, particularly by managing feed cost per hundredweight (cwt) of energy-corrected milk. According to data from the University of Minnesota, the top 10%...
DNA parentage testing in animals operates on exclusion principles, where an offspring’s DNA profile is compared to that of potential parents. If the genetic markers don’t align, the parent is excluded. When markers match across the evaluated DNA markers,...