The role of a national evaluation system in promoting dairy sustainability

Authors: Miles, Asha; PARKER GADDIS, KRISTEN - Council On Dairy Cattle Breeding; COLE, JOHN - Council On Dairy Cattle Breeding; FOURDRAINE, ROBERT - Dairy Records Management Systems(DRMS)

Submitted to: Journal of Dairy Science Communications
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/22/2024
Publication Date: 1/9/2025
Citation: Miles, A.M., Parker Gaddis, K.L., Cole, J.B., Fourdraine, R.H. 2025. The role of a national evaluation system in promoting dairy sustainability. Journal of Dairy Science Communications. https://doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2024-0645.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3168/jdsc.2024-0645

Interpretive Summary: In this paper we describe the establishment of the National Cooperator Database, the largest animal database in the world, and how this tool is essential to promoting sustainability from a dairy breeding perspective. We discuss 3 questions 1) How have we been addressing sustainability in U.S. dairy breeding?, 2) What are the opportunities?, and 3) What are the lessons from the last century of U.S. dairy breeding programs? Major areas of opportunity include preserving genetic diversity by managing the increased rate of inbreeding observed in the U.S. dairy population and modernizing data collection systems to enable the use of high-throughput phenotyping data for evaluation of new economically important traits. In addition, we describe original research to establish a herd-level sustainability metrics tool through a consortium of partners committed to pre-competitive collaboration.

Technical Abstract: Sustainable agriculture is best defined as a balance of practices that promote economic vitality, protect the natural environment, and build healthy communities in the present without compromising the future. The dairy industry has achieved tremendous gains in productive efficiency following decades of work with these goals in mind. A major tool contributing to this progress is the U.S. National Cooperator Database (NCD), which was developed in partnership with key industry groups. Involving a complex system of management and both domestic and international data sharing, the NCD now includes more than 9 million genotypes, 100 million pedigrees, and 100 million lactation records. The primary outputs of this system are national genetic and genomic evaluations that are delivered to participants tri-annually. Greater genetic gains have resulted in a faster rate of inbreeding, a well-established antagonist to cow health and performance. With dairy genetics being traded all over the world, the NCD enables the monitoring of inbreeding at the global population level. Dairy systems are continually evolving thanks to technology advancements, changing consumer values, and resource availability, and frequent interrogation of the NCD can facilitate the early detection of changing industry trends. These changes impact the accuracy of existing evaluations for traits like fertility, but also highlight the need for improvement tools that are just as dynamic as the dairy industry. An industry-wide effort is underway to develop a herd-level sustainability metrics platform that would support dairy producer ability to farm and track their progress in key health and production areas. This pre-competitive collaboration among dairy industry groups ensures the reliable flow of accurate data so we can continue to develop tools to support the dairy producer in the present and future.