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Bringing The Vet To The Centre Of Breeding Strategy |
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Breeding for sustainability
Responding to calls for a more sustainable dairy farming industry may mean challenging some of the more established breeding practices, according to experts from the veterinary and genetics sectors.
Selecting bulls on the basis of a single trait, for example, or producing replacements mainly from long-established cow families, may not necessarily be the best way to breed longer-lived cows and create herds with higher standards of animal welfare.
For pointers towards a better way forward, dairy farmers need look no further than their industry’s own breeding indices – with the evolution of the Profitable Lifetime Index (PLI) providing the best example of how the emphasis is shifting – but is this alone going to be enough to prompt a necessary change of direction for many herds?
Mike Christie, a partner with the veterinary practice Lambert, Leonard and May, believes the specialist cattle vet potentially has a central role to play in shaping future farm breeding strategy so that the sought-for sustainability is achieved more readily.
The Cheshire-based practice has a significant leaning towards the dairy sector, and – like other similar specialist operations around the country – has built proactive relationships with many of its clients through routine breeding and fertility work. The practice is also involved in flushing and embryo transfer with its more progressive clients, but it is as much in selecting genetics – as distinct from fertility management – where Mr Christie believes the vet’s role can potentially develop most significantly.
“Few vets will currently be involved in the long term breeding strategy on dairy farms, in terms of bull selection or which bulls to use on which cows, as this has traditionally been the domain of the semen companies,” he says.
“I’ve no doubt that the leading semen companies will continue to play a major role in assisting and influencing farmers in their breeding policies, but I do think that suitably qualified vets can offer an independent perspective and have the added advantage of being closely involved with all aspects of herd health.
“The committed dairy farmers that I work with increasingly want low maintenance cows that get back into calf easily and walk off the farm after a long and productive life. This is best achieved through a breeding policy that starts with a minimum standard for PLI, and then builds on this sound base by selecting the appropriate genetics to fine tune other health-related areas such as fertility, somatic cell counts and hoof health.”
Basing a breeding policy on a minimum standard for PLI certainly makes sense in the context of developing more sustainable herds – particularly now that this combined index is balanced more in favour of so-called fitness traits such as lifespan, fertility and locomotion as distinct from production – but is it being widely enough used and are vets qualified to consult on such matters?
According to Mel Royal, senior lecturer in genetics and animal breeding at Liverpool Vet School, there is some way to go on both counts, but no reason why the industry cannot make positive strides in the right direction.
“In a recent survey that we carried out investigating dairy farmers’ animal breeding decisions, only around one-third recognised or regularly used combined indices such as PLI,” she reports. “Alongside this, the survey also revealed that only a quarter seek to obtain advice from their vet on breeding decisions. I think this shows there is a considerable information gap out there, and also points to the vet being an under-utilised independent resource that could help to bridge that gap. The potential impact of using the correct genetics is cost effective, cumulative and permanent, and these are all vital ingredients if dairy farmers want to achieve this goal of sustainability.”
Part of the reason for this “information gap” is the relatively rapid pace at which new indices are emerging and the increasing complexity of the information now at dairy farmers’ disposal. All the more reason, according to Mel Royal – who herself helped create the fertility index that now comprises part of the PLI – for involving the specialist cattle vet in its dissemination and use.
“Dairy farmers should be planning years ahead and not just looking to solve problems with short term solutions and that is why greater attention to detail in genetics could be so important,” she says. “Fertility is a great example, because it is a major issue on a lot of dairy farms and, through the development of relevant indices, there is a role for genetics in improving a farm’s situation. It is a complex picture, however, and requires input from appropriately qualified and experienced vets.”
The appropriate qualification, points out Mel Royal, is the Diploma in Bovine Reproduction (DBR). Specialist cattle vets like Mike Christie hold this qualification, and as a result are best placed to not only provide consultancy on fertility management but also the longer-term and more strategically important areas of genetics.
“There is no doubt that vets will continue to work more closely with their dairy farmer clients going forward,” concludes Mel Royal, “and I can think of no single area that will create the greatest impact than genetics.”
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