Using a Selection Index
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired Sept. 18, 2003
With Chuck Sattler, vice president, progeny testing,
Select Sires Inc.
Chuck, with so much sire information out there today, how can dairy producers sort it all out?
Well, many producers use what we call a selection index. A selection index is a helpful tool to help zero in on bulls that best fit producers’ needs. Many people have heard of values like TPI in the Holstein breed and JPI in the Jersey breed. These are examples of selection indexes. A selection index can help producers combine the different pieces of sire-summary information on several different traits, and identify the bulls that provide the most combined improvement for all these traits.
With profitability top of mind, are producers looking more at the genetic rankings for dollar values today?
I believe they are, Bill. Profitability certainly has never been more important than it is today. One of the helpful pieces of information are the selection indexes provided by USDA. The USDA provides indexes are called net-merit dollars, fluid-merit dollars, and cheese-merit dollars, and these values are intended to help farmers focus in on those sire-summary traits that will help improve profitability the most.
So, what are some of these changes to the formulas?
These formulas were revised with the August 2003 genetic evaluations. What USDA did was add in the information for some reproduction traits to these formulas. The traits that were added were PTAs for daughter pregnancy rates and the calving-ease genetic evaluation. We have discussed the genetic evaluations for these traits in earlier Reproductive Moments segments, and they are useful traits to use in your sire-selection program. Now, these traits have been added to USDA merit formula, and these traits certainly are of great importance to dairy farmers. But, we need to keep in mind that the reliability of these traits is low and that is why it is best to include them in the USDA merit formula. To enables us to take advantage of the information, but, to do so in an appropriate way.
Practically speaking, what do these adjustments mean for producers?
Well, really, two things.
Farmers need to choose the merit formula that best fits their milk market.
Those farmers that receive little or no payment for protein in their milk should
use the fluid-merit formula provided by USDA. Those farmers that receive a moderate payment for protein, like the prices that are received in multiple-component-pricing markets, should really focus in on the net-merit dollar index. For those farmers that receive a fairly high premium for the protein in the milk, like those that are taking advantage of some of the cheese-yield pricing markets, should maybe look at the cheese-merit formula that USDA provides.
Information on all three USDA indexes are routinely available on A.I. organization Web sites and from A.I. sales representatives.
So, the bottom line is when the producers want to use this information, they can go to those Web sites, or they can go ahead and contact a Select Sires sales representative.
That is exactly right. Farmers that are interested in including reproduction traits in their sire-selection program can feel comfortable that these traits are now included in the indexes routinely provided by USDA. If they are looking for more information on specifics on how this information is being used, please ask your local Select Sires sales representative for more information.
Thank you, Chuck. Chuck Sattler, vice president of progeny testing at Select Sires.
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