Applying breeding objectives to dairy cattle improvement

Otherwise well-researched definitions of breeding objectives and selection criteria may never be used in practice if those definitions do not take into account the perceptions and wishes of the breeders for whom they are designed. Finding selection criteria that are widely accepted and implemented is a daunting task that requires considerable time and full interaction between the scientists and the industry. We review various aspects of this process and, in particular, how scientific principles can be used to ensure that the outcome best meets both the perceptions and needs of the users while remaining as close as possible to the technical economic optimum. Alternative methods of presenting and delivering selection indexes, such as index expression, index formulation, focus on response to selection rather than on index weights, construction of component indexes, and the use of direct accounting for costs of constraints rather than rescaling methods can all help in improving acceptance of an index. Development and implementation of selection criteria also involve consideration of the selective mating decisions that form an integral part of selection decisions in the field. The technical basis of factors that foster emphasis on individual mating decisions in the field are discussed in relation to formulation of the breeding goal and selection index and in relation to nonlinear economic and genetic parameters. Strategies that focus on use of a linear index for the selection of sires and dams followed by selective mating of selected parents have the greatest potential for implementation in the industry. We focus on examples taken from the Canadian dairy industry, but principles apply generally.