Breeding the Holstein cow of the future: current status and future requirements

The demands on future cows made continue to grow. The existence of a pronounced negative energy balance (NEB) in the early lactation is not sufficiently considered in the current German target formulation at Deutsche Holsteins (DH). At the same time, some features currently do not (yet) have any explicit economic value for the single farm (e.g., GHG emissions). Here, societal expectations will help ensure that such characteristics become a regular part of future breeding programs in dairy cows. The definition of a uniform breeding goal at German Holsteins, which are demonstrably kept under very differentiated production environments, is no longer up-to-date. A Rethinking is already required in the breeding goal formulation. Consistent grazing systems require dairy cows that are adapted to a high intake of high quality grass and efficiently convert the feed into high quality milk components. They must have very good fertility in order to calve regularly at the beginning of the growing season. In the very large herds particularly robust dairy cows are needed. Here, the health traits are of particular importance. A differentiated weighting of the different trait complexes in specific total breeding values is proposed. It leads to a differentiated ranking of available breeding animals (AI-bulls), which can be used specifically. At the same time, a production system dependent breeding animal assessment contributes to the preservation of genetic diversity in the Holstein population.