dairy farming Archives

Selecting for feed efficiency to improve milk yield in dairy cows

Written by

Breeding programmes in dairy cattle have been successful in the past by selecting for high milk yield, effectively doubling productivity over the past 50 years. However, this approach is reaching a plateau, with minimal improvements expected in the future. For Pekka Huhtanen and his colleagues at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute and Natural […]

Cow genetics could reduce the environmental impact of pastoral livestock production

Written by

Dairy farming can have negative effects on the environment, polluting waterways with an excess of nitrogen that can have long-term impacts. Research to date has addressed this problem by looking at ways to reduce the cow’s urinary urea nitrogen concentration, but this has involved mitigation techniques that paint the cow as the problem rather than the solution. Cameron Marshall, a […]