Genetic evaluation of profitability measures in Holstein dairy cows

This study aimed to assess and estimate the genetic parameters for profit indices and identify the most reliable index for selection purposes. A total of 4637629 test-day records were collected from 255,804 cows across 124 herds over 15 years (2009-2024). However, the economic data were collected only from five dairy herds. The profitability indices include profit, income over feed cost (IOFC), income equal to feed cost (IEFC), money-corrected milk (MCM) and milk-to-feed price ratio (MFPR). The results of this study revealed that profit has a moderate heritability (0.25), indicating a potential for genetic improvement. The IOFC per 100 kg of milk (IOFCmilk) had the highest genetic (r = 0.97) and phenotypic (r = 0.92) correlation with profit, making it the most reliable profit alternative. Furthermore, IEFC per 100 kg of milk (IEFCmilk) was genetically negatively correlated with profit (-0.80), indicating that Cows with high IEFC were less economically efficient. While milk yield had improved, profitability had shown a negative genetic trend, which means that an exclusive focus on higher milk production is detrimental to long-term economic efficiency. Generally, indices such as IOFCmilk and IEFCmilk should be considered in breeding programs to increase profitability, efficiency and sustainability within industrial dairy farms.