A study on the relationship between the longevity and profitability of dairy cattle

Records of 490,767 cows collected from 1990 to 2012 by dairy herd milk test of National Agriculture Cooperative Federation The pedigree of dairy cattle were provided by Korea Animal Improvement Association. The data were used to analyze the longevity of dairy cows with the life traits such as days in milk, number of lactation, productive life, and life span. The data were also used to investigate genetic relationship of these longevity traits with profitability of dairy cows, including heritability and genetic correlation. The profitability was calculated with simulation of milk income and production costs for individual cows. Days in milk among the traits had -0.287, -0.572 and -0.536 of genetic correlation with number of lactations, productive life and lifespan, respectively. The heritabilities of life span, number of lactations, productive life, and days in milk were found to be 0.045, 0.047, 0.059 and 0.081, respectively. Genetic correlations of profit with productive life, number of lactations, and days in milk were identified as 0.072, 0.080, 0.098 and 0.101. These results suggested that days in milk was most desirable traits to represent longevity of Holstein dairy cattle. In general, since longevity and profitability were close genetic relationship each other, genetic improvement of longevity is necessary for better profitable cows.

젖소의 장수성과 수익성 관계 연구