Milk Recording vs Genomic Testing

I’m thinking of stopping milk recording and pedigree registrations. It’s a bit of a hassle CIS website is terrible to use and their app is rubbish so hard to actually extrapolate information out of it. Parlour system tells me the yields would just miss the butterfat, protein and scc though these are all pretty good anyway.
Was thinking that genomic testing the heifer calves might be as reliable a way of identifying the high performers.
Anyone else thinking similar or doing similar
Thanks
 
So instead of knowing the facts you'd rather have a prediction?
Sounds like madness to me. I'd say stop the pedigree reg and milk record less often.
But the parlour dairy plan system tells me what the actual daily yields are not a predicted/calculated yield from CIS. Scc are low and bf protein high so not something I worry to much about.
the genomic testing the calves would at least highlight which ones to breed from. The milk recording only tells me the dam info
 

Gerbert

Member
Location
Dutch biblebelt
Fair point, if you only care about yield and you have a way of monitoring the quantity of milk per cow.
But overhere there are parlours with the milkers going directly to the tank, they rent tru test milkmeters of the company that analyzes the samples.
Could be different in your country so excuse my ignorance.
 

Jdunn55

Member
Milk record 4 times a year instead of monthly so that you can test for johnes and then you have all the info there

I genomic test my heifers but still pay far more attention to who their mothers and sires are than what the computer says they should be. If I have a heifer from a crap cow and the computer tells me she's fantastic she will still be put to beef until she changes my mind once she's calved and vice versa! However it is good if you genomic test them and heifer 'a' is low for butterfat but high for milk you can put her to a high butterfat bull without worrying what his milk figure is

As for pedigree, unless you enjoy it and therefore want to do it, don't bother with it
 

upnortheast

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Northumberland
Milk record 4 times a year instead of monthly so that you can test for johnes and then you have all the info there

I genomic test my heifers but still pay far more attention to who their mothers and sires are than what the computer says they should be. If I have a heifer from a crap cow and the computer tells me she's fantastic she will still be put to beef until she changes my mind once she's calved and vice versa!
Wise words
Genomics are another piece of the jigsaw to be used alongside all the other breeding tools available
Problem is there are folk driving round farms with laptops & clean wellies who base all their advice on genomics
 

cjbailey

Member
Livestock Farmer
Been genomic testing every calf since 2015. Now majority of the herd has genomic data against it (just the old girls without) Really pleased with the accuracy, making a big difference to the herd. We have focused hard on lifespan, fertility and maintenance (size). Autumn block calving herd, like to graze holsteins as much as possible. We still calssify as we think its good to get second set of eyes. Also the classification data helps with the accuracy of genomics and new trait development. It's the classification data on size that is used to identify Gene's associated with size. The newish digital dermatitis trait developed by AHDB used classifier information on which cows had it and therefore they could identify Gene's associated with it.

However I would caution stopping milk recording. The industry is going more and more towards selective dry cow, 60% of our cows dried of without antibiotics now. Seen massive improvements in SCC since doing more selective, but wouldn't dare do it without milk recording data. Think a lot of the gain is from being a lot more carefully when drying cows of without antibiotics and then being just as careful when using antibiotics.

Data from milk recording is what they used to identify traits for genomics, fertility, lifespan, fat protein yeilds scc. So again if everyone stopped milk recording there wouldn't be a reference data set to validate the genomics against and bull proofs.

Without milk recording you cant access AHDB herd genetic report which is what I use for bull selection and inbreeding checker. Means I can used multiple companies semen and not be tied to one.

Quarter pro is another good tool that you need to milk record to access. Would highly recommend having a play with. I always assumed we had a contagious mastitis pattern but actually ours is more environmental. Been focusing on the wrong area.
 

bigw

Member
Location
Scotland
Been genomic testing every calf since 2015. Now majority of the herd has genomic data against it (just the old girls without) Really pleased with the accuracy, making a big difference to the herd. We have focused hard on lifespan, fertility and maintenance (size). Autumn block calving herd, like to graze holsteins as much as possible. We still calssify as we think its good to get second set of eyes. Also the classification data helps with the accuracy of genomics and new trait development. It's the classification data on size that is used to identify Gene's associated with size. The newish digital dermatitis trait developed by AHDB used classifier information on which cows had it and therefore they could identify Gene's associated with it.

However I would caution stopping milk recording. The industry is going more and more towards selective dry cow, 60% of our cows dried of without antibiotics now. Seen massive improvements in SCC since doing more selective, but wouldn't dare do it without milk recording data. Think a lot of the gain is from being a lot more carefully when drying cows of without antibiotics and then being just as careful when using antibiotics.

Data from milk recording is what they used to identify traits for genomics, fertility, lifespan, fat protein yeilds scc. So again if everyone stopped milk recording there wouldn't be a reference data set to validate the genomics against and bull proofs.

Without milk recording you cant access AHDB herd genetic report which is what I use for bull selection and inbreeding checker. Means I can used multiple companies semen and not be tied to one.

Quarter pro is another good tool that you need to milk record to access. Would highly recommend having a play with. I always assumed we had a contagious mastitis pattern but actually ours is more environmental. Been focusing on the wrong area.

3rd party companies should be paying farmers to milk record as they will use most of the data that is generated from it and then use it to sell us stuff back!!
 

Serup

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Denmark
I’m thinking of stopping milk recording and pedigree registrations. It’s a bit of a hassle CIS website is terrible to use and their app is rubbish so hard to actually extrapolate information out of it. Parlour system tells me the yields would just miss the butterfat, protein and scc though these are all pretty good anyway.
Was thinking that genomic testing the heifer calves might be as reliable a way of identifying the high performers.
Anyone else thinking similar or doing similar
Thanks
We have milk recorded all my life and i have genomic tested all heifers for 4-5 years now. There is no way i would swap the milk recording for those tests. It’s a guestimate at best and the numbers change a lot on every animal over time.
 

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