BREEDING AIMS AND MARKETING FROM THE POINT-OF-VIEW OF A BREEDING SOCIETY

According to the animal breeding act each breeding organization must fix its breeding aim itself. The breeding aim should be directed towards animals 1. which are able to produce a durable positive effect on the profitability of the producer's enterprise, 2. whose products meet the consumers' preference for high quality, 3. which perform in such a way that interests of consumer protection, animal welfare and preservation of environment are respected, 4. which are adaptive, i.e. suitable for production under changing environmental conditions. The breeding aim must be adjusted mainly to the production within the own breeding area and should not be adapted to the selling possibilities of the breeding society or even be subordinated to them. The selection criteria mentioned in the breeding aim must have economic importance, sufficient additive genetic variation and be measurable with sufficient accuracy. As a consequence of changed price-to-cost ratios for milk, concentrates and labour, cow numbers should be reduced and milk yield per cow be further increased rapidly for economic reasons. This is also reasonable for marketing of breeding cattle and for preservation of environment. Main attention should be paid to protein yield (1 kg of milk protein per day of production). Protein content, on the other hand, should not be overemphasized. With increasing milk yields certain conformation traits should gain in point for labour saving, udder health, milk quality and animal welfare. On the other hand, body conformation is most important for correlations with useful life and market value of animals in Black Pied cattle breeding. Criteria as, reproductive performance, health, longevity, milkability, beefing performance and congenital defects, are discussed in view of their importance, their correlations with other traits and their susceptibility to being influenced by breeding and management. Summarizing it may be concluded that practical breeding work should focus on a small number of traits in order to maximize the total outcome of farms quickly. The following goals should be aimed at: cows able to produce very high protein yields and to warrant sure reproduction; their bodies, udders and members must allow and stand high performance.