Economic values of traits for dairy cattle improvement estimated using field-recorded data

The objective of this study was to compute economic values of traits using an empirical approach. The data set consisted of 193 257 lifetime records of Holstein and Ayrshire cows. Different profitability measurements were used as the dependent variables in covariance models to compute different sets of economic values. A kilogram genetic increase in fat production had economic values between $25 and $31 in Holstein herds and between $34 and $36 in Ayrshire herds using lifetime profit as the dependent variable. A unit genetic increase in conformation had the highest positive impact on profit ($176 in Holstein herds and $300 in Ayrshire herds) while a similar increase in capacity had a negative impact on profit (between $–30 and $–102 in Holstein herds and $–92 in Ayrshire herds). Using lifetime profit adjusted for the opportunity cost of postponed replacement reduced the influence of type traits on profit. Finally, profits of first lactations were used to study the consequences of changes in pricing system...