Glacier FarmMedia – The emphasis given to production and health characteristics will change in a proposed new lifetime performance index for Canadian dairy cows, with new weighting for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing “milkability.” Brian Van Doormaal is chief services officer for Lactanet, the genetic testing and data management organization leading the process. He […] Read more
Tag Archives Brian Van Doormaal
Beef-on-dairy hybrid options ranked using existing data
Lactanet partners with Angus group to help dairies that are moving towards becoming meat producers as well
Glacier FarmMedia – More dairy producers are interested in getting a slice of the beef pie these days. That’s led Lactanet to work with an U.S.-based Angus association to share genotyping of Angus bulls from Canada, the U.S. and Australia and improve breeding decisions for those hybrid farms. Brian Van Doormaal, chief services officer for […] Read more
Producers can select for methane-efficient cows
Long-term genetic selection would be less of an impediment to dairy farmers than cuts to fertilizer use or manure capacity
A world-leading approach to creating a methane-specific breeding index has been developed by Lactanet. Not content to wait until “sniffer” technology for measuring bovine methane emissions eventually becomes more affordable, the Canadian dairy data collection and genetics analysis organization developed the index based on milk samples. “Canada will be the first country globally to offer […] Read more
Farmers can select for methane-efficient cows
World-first approach could reduce a herd’s methane emissions by 20-30 per cent by 2050, help meet industry’s GHG goals
A world-leading approach to creating a methane-specific breeding index has been developed by Lactanet. Not content to wait until “sniffer” technology for measuring bovine methane emissions eventually becomes more affordable, the Canadian dairy data collection and genetics analysis organization developed the index based on milk samples. “Canada will be the first country globally to offer […] Read more
