In recent months, Select Sires has introduced two new tools, Mastitis ResistantPROTM and Herd Health Profit DollarsTM (HHP$TM). Both tools are science-based and Mastitis ResistantPRO incorporates health and wellness traits from the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) and Zoetis.
Health traits continue to prove their worth in our industry. Not only can we see this in the recent validation study with Dairy Wellness Profit Dollars® (DWP$®) but herd managers see the influence of these traits and indexes with less problem cows, vacant sick pens and lower antibiotic use.
New designation
The Mastitis ResistantPRO designation is the industry’s first-of-its-kind, complete genetic tool to combat mastitis. Select Sires professionals have analyzed the economic impact of mastitis resistance traits in dairy herds. Genetic audits of CDCB Mastitis Resistance and CDCB Somatic Cell Score (SCS) reveal significant savings for higher genetic merit animals, translating to more profit for farmers. The new designation identifies sires that excel in multiple indicators of mastitis resistance, including CDCB MAST, SCS and Zoetis Mastitis Resistance.
Mastitis is reported as the third most popular reason for culling in commercial dairy herds and a case of clinical mastitis in the first 30 days of lactation results in an economic loss of $4441. This cost includes treatment expenses and the subsequent effects of milk loss, premature culling, replacement loss and future reproductive challenges. Industry reports show the incidence rate for mastitis is 24.82 percent and most cows with a mastitis event are treated with antibiotics. Improving genetic merit for mastitis resistance will reduce the use of antimicrobials, which translates to both on-farm savings and consumer approval.
Holstein sires that carry the Mastitis ResistantPRO designation will reduce mastitis cases by 2.3 percent. In a 1,000-cow herd, the savings are greater than $10,000 per year.
Herd Health Profit Dollars
While Mastitis ResistantPRO hones in on the specific challenges of mastitis, HHP$ offers farmers a broader, yet robust index to build healthy herds. As dairies strategically use beef semen in growing numbers, they are raising fewer replacement heifers and experiencing lower herd turnover rates. With more older cows in the herd, treatment costs are an initial concern and the need for healthy cows pays off. HHP$ is engineered to create healthy, trouble-free, efficient and fertile cows that return more dollars for your rearing investment.
What sets HHP$ apart from other health-focused indexes?
There are several features that differentiate this index from others, including a balance of improvement in both fat and protein yields as well as emphasis on mastitis resistance, udder conformation traits and CDCB’s new evaluation for feed efficiency.
HHP$ can be used to rank heifers in herds that perform genomic testing but don’t test with Zoetis or don’t have CLARIFIED® Plus results. HHP$ can also be used for A.I. sire selection and provides a health-focused index that can be used across the industry to rank bulls on the future profitability of their daughters.
1Preventative Veterinary Medicine, Vol. 122, Issue 3, 12/2015, Pages 257-264. 2National Animal Health Monitoring System, 2014.