The arrival of summer sees dairy farmers in hot areas looking at ways to help cows handle hot, humid weather. This week’s release of Australian Breeding Values (ABVs) from DataGene is a good opportunity for farmers to think about adding breeding to their tool kit for managing heat in dairy herds.

Michelle Axford from DataGene said the Heat Tolerance ABV, enabled dairy farmers to identify high genetic merit animals that are more able to tolerate hot conditions with less impact on milk production.

Dairy farmers and industry people are being encouraged to have their say about the industry’s National Breeding Objective (NBO), by filling in a survey over the coming month (Dec 19-Jan 20).

Michelle Axford from DataGene said the National Breeding Objective described the agreed collective breeding priorities for the Australian dairy industry. It is currently expressed as the Balanced Performance Index (BPI), Health Weighted Index (HWI) and Type Weighted Index (TWI).