Using Genetics to ease the Sky-High feed prices

In an article published by The Philadelphia Inquirer, the current state of our economy and how we got here is dove into. The dairy farmer, like many other business owners, have gone through a recession, faced a global pandemic leading to many having to dump their milk and now face inflated feed prices. 

These challenges have forced many small family dairy farms to sell their herds or change their core focus. Some have relied on diversifying their income and other on genetics. With the management practice of creating cross-bred beef calves from the lower end of your herd becoming more popular, many have found residual income with this genetic practice. Others have relied on feed intake to reduce costs on their operation.

With the introduction of Feed Saved, a new feed efficiency trait, dairy producers have the opportunity to genomically test for and then focus on this trait in their herd. A trait that helps create cows who produce the same amount of milk on less feed, making them a more sustainable and efficient animal.

BoviNews has a webinar, Genetic Tools to Improve Feed Efficiency, that features four of the traits best specialists who bring their knowledge and applicable examples of how to use this genetic tool to your herd.

With the outlook of the dairy industry continuing to face a multitude of challenges it is essential to branch out to find ways to gain income or to save on costs.