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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #399769
Research Project: Increasing Accuracy of Genomic Prediction, Developing Algorithms, Selecting Markers, and Evaluating New Traits to Improve Dairy Cattle

Location: Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory

Title: Is there a genetic piece to milking speed?

Author
item Miles, Asha

Submitted to: Hoard's Dairyman
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/14/2022
Publication Date: 12/1/2022
Citation: Miles, A.M. 2022. Is there a genetic piece to milking speed? Hoard's Dairyman. Available: https://hoards.com/article-32922-is-there-a-genetic-piece-to-milking-speed.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=221201-132Thursday&utm_content=221201-132Thursday+CID_d7f57b576dfcaa74c3fa648c8b073eda&utm_source=Intel&utm_term=Is%20there%20a%20genetic%20piece%20to%20milking%20speed.

Interpretive Summary: Many dairy producers actively use milking speed (MS) metrics to guide their management and make economic decisions. MS can be measured a number of ways, but these phenotypes must be interpreted with caution and can be subject to biological and system effects that affect their values. Research is underway to fully investigate those effects and determine how a MS evaluation would provide the most value to US dairy producers.

Technical Abstract: Many dairy producers actively use milking speed (MS) metrics to guide their management and make economic decisions. Conventional herds use MS to choose their milking groups and optimize parlor throughput. Herds with automated or voluntary milking systems may use MS for important economic decisions like choosing how many robots to buy and manage their herds with the goal of maximizing milk per robot. Milking speed information can be an impactful tool for maximizing the efficiency and profitability of a dairy herd. While the US does not yet have genetic evaluations for MS, at least 18 other countries regularly supply this information to their producers. The Milking Speed Evaluations Task Force was appointed in October 2021 by the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) to review the possibility of implementing genetic evaluations for MS in all dairy breeds and to make recommendations to the CDCB Board of Directors on the necessary steps to make this happen. The first hurdle related to this goal is in understanding the quantitative milking speed phenotypes produced by milking meters and how they are affected by system and biological effects.