Advances In Breeding Of Dairy Cattle

The past decade has revealed unfavourable trends in e.g. fertility, udder health and locomotion in some major dairy cattle breeds due to a large increase in production and insufficient consideration of functional traits in the breeding goals. Such unfavourable trends in some functional traits increase costs. Additionally, the enlargement of herds leads to less available labour time per individual cow. This asks for cows that are easy to handle. At the same time, society is demanding a higher welfare standard of animals. These contradicting developments have increased the desire for so called more robust animals. Robustness can be defined as 'the ability to maintain homeostasis in commonly accepted and sustainable herds of the near future'; or 'the ability of the cow to function well in the environment she lives in as well as in a wide range of climates and production systems'. This book contains a series of articles (26) dealing with the concept of robustness, including aspects like evolution, genetics, environment, animal health and welfare, and integrity. Besides the major functional traits also the links to energy balance, hot climatic conditions, and the attitude and input of stakeholders towards robustness as part of the breeding program are discussed. This book is the first attempt to summarise the available knowledge concerning this topic in cattle, making this book unique. The contributions are from authors of 16 countries from all over the world. However, the focus is presently on farm animal level, while in future robustness of the whole production system may also require additional attention.

Gathering some 90 entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, this book covers animal breeding and genetics for food, crop science and technology, ocean farming and sustainable aquaculture, transgenic livestock for food and more.

The development of cattle improvement program; History and development of artificial insemination; The revolution in cattle-breeding methods; Advances in modern breeding methods; The impact on cattle breeding; Effect of AI on the purebred cattle industry; Technical developments: past and future; Worldwide use of artificial insemination; Artificial insemination in the tropics; The National Association of Animal Breeders and the AI Program in the United States; Early history and beginning; Growth and progress of the program; The developing years, 1953-1958; Two decades of AI progress; Years of adjustment, 1960-1966; The maturing years, 1966-1970; First quarter century: silver anniversary, 1970-1971; New challenges and goals; Thirty-five years of service: markets expand; A matured program: new horizons.