Trends

in Genetics

Today, I want to take a historical look at how weve changed our cows and discuss why we were
able to generate such change.

The Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding does a terrific job tracking how cows have changed over
time in the United States. The average milk yields of Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss cows are
shown in our chart. In most instances, a cow will have a calf, milk for approximately 10 to 12
months, and then enter a non-lactating, or dry, period before the cycle begins again. These
yields are what we expect a mature cow to produce over a 10 month lactation cycle. Milk yield
has essentially doubled over the last half century. Keep in mind that selection for milk yield
began long before 1960. Beef breeds, such as Angus, have not been heavily selected for higher
milk yield and only produce enough milk to feed their calves. They typically produce less than
half of what was expected of Jersey cows way back in 1960.

The trends in the previous graph demonstrate the combined effects of genetics, nutrition,
management, and housing. Now lets look at the total phenotypic change from 1960 to today
and the genetic component of that change. As you can see, over half of the change weve
experienced in milk yield has been due to genetic selection.

Milk yield is not the only thing that has changed about our cows. Cows today look quite a bit
different than a century ago. These two pictures show two Holsteins from different eras. The
first picture is from 1917, and the second of a modern Holstein. Todays cows are generally
quite a bit taller and thinner.

Perhaps the most dramatic change is the udder. Youll note that the udder floor had a lot of tilt
in 1917. The teats were pointing forward and out for the older style cow. Modern udders have
a larger volume, but they are easier milk because they are more symmetrical and they are less
prone to injury because of their teat positioning and the udder is further from the ground. This
change in udder conformation has allowed cows to give more milk, but at the same time
maintain resistance to mastitis infections.

Selection for higher yield is not without unfavorable consequences. In our chart Ive plotted the
genetic trend in daughter pregnancy rate, our primary measure of cow fertility. As you can see,
there has been a severe erosion in cow fertility over the last 5 decades. Weve seen a bit of a
turnaround for Holsteins lately, but inherent fertility levels are still well below historic norms.

This type of correlated response has long been a challenge for animal breeders. Consider the
following quote from Charles Darwins famous On the Origin of Species written in 1859.

In order to spend on one side, nature is forced to economize on the other side.' I think this
holds true to a certain extent with our domestic productions: if nourishment flows to one part
or organ in excess, it rarely flows, at least in excess, to another part; thus it is difficult to get a
cow to give much milk and to fatten readily.

Now - I admit to being skeptical about whether our genetic selection principles can be extended
to describing the origin of new functional features and species. But, there is no question that
Darwins observation that trade-offs must be made during selection were spot on. These types
of unfavorable correlated responses to selection have long challenged animal breeders and
they continue to do so today. That challenge is one of the reasons that geneticists develop the
selection indexes as discussed in the previous video.

Dairy cattle have experienced a drastic amount of genetic change in the last 5 decades, so what
has facilitated that type of change? There are 4 key factors that determine the rate of genetic
change.

First we have to accurately determine a bull or cows genetic merit. Our accuracy is extremely
high for sires with many daughters, but is lower for young bulls and cows.

Second we have to be picky. Because of artificial insemination, we can get thousands of

offspring from a single bull so we only use the best of the best sires. This elevates our selection
intensity. Embryo transfer and in-vitro fertilization help us to increase selection intensity for
females as well.

Third a trait must have genetic variation. Let me give you an outlandish example. I love
chocolate milk provided that all the good tasting fat hasnt been removed anyway. Wouldnt
it be nice if our cows would just make chocolate milk for us so that we dont have to add it
ourselves? Unfortunately, our cows lack the genetic potential to make chocolate milk directly,
so we cant select for chocolate milk cows.

Finally, the faster we turn over our generations, the faster we make change. This is called the
generation interval and is the age of parents when their offspring are born.

This genetic response formula has been relied upon by geneticists to identify opportunities that
will allow us to accelerate genetic gain to even higher levels. The formula only applies to the
breeders that sell elite genetic seedstock to artificial insemination companies. Commercial
herds in the business of selling milk use semen from those elite bulls and are pulled along at the
same pace as the elite breeder herds.

In our final session, we will discuss a recent innovation that promises to accelerate genetic
progress and look forward to other new technologies that may be important in the future.