Highly productive dairy cows are obtained from quality sire and good farm management practices.

To have high milk producing cows requires good quality genetics.

In this case, a number of factors are useful to predict the milk production of a heifer.

For instance, the dam’s (mother) own production level, the sire or bull (father) production performance, performance of other entire family members (pedigree information).

Other factors due to the environment like stage of lactation and season and the management of nutrition and health will also play a role in the amount of milk produced.

It is, therefore, important to note that a series of breeding decisions mean the difference between profit and loss from our herds.

Normally, the dam and sire transmits each half of their genes to the offspring (heifer) but the genes for milk production transmitted by the sire are expressed in their daughters.

This way, you should not only judge the performance of the resulting offspring based on the dam’s information alone. If milk production of both dam and sire are available, then the predicted milk performance of the resulting offspring will be the average of its parent’s breeding values for milk production.

For instance, if this cow that gives 15 litres of milk a day is mated to a bull giving 27 litres of milk (average production for the bull’s daughters), then the offspring can only be predicted to produce an estimate of 21 litres.

This is the simplest estimate of heifer’s milk production though other variation factors such as heritability and the population mean of the dam have not been considered to estimate a more accurate amount.

This clearly shows that the choice of a bull for service greatly impacts in improving the offspring’s (heifer) milk production hence it should be taken seriously.

You will be able to tell how good a bull is based on the milk production performance of his past daughters.

For artificial insemination users, the sire information of the semen used is always available on sire catalogue to ensure you get a bull of your choice.

KEEP RECORDS

The relationship between breeding values of parents with that of their offspring is key because it allows one to predict the breeding values of the next generation based upon predictions of the breeding value of their parents.

As such, it is advisable to keep as many records as possible, such as milk production records, to facilitate selection of future parents for breeding.

The more the amount of information available, the better and more accurate the prediction is which ultimately leads to optimal breeding strategies and increased annual genetic progress.

For better production in your herd, make sure you breed your cow to the right bull with better genetic merits and avoid inbreeding.

After genetics, ensure adequate access to balanced ration, mineral salts or licks and clean drinking water to allow the heifer to express her genetic potential.