Dairy is one of Canada’s most important and dynamic industries. Global demand for dairy products is set to expand further in concert with the middle-class of emerging economies, the need for safe, affordable, nutritious and high-quality milk protein in developing countries and world population expansion. At the same time, the dairy industry is also facing a number of emerging issues important to governments and consumers, related to human and animal health, environmental impacts, sustainability, and social acceptability. This project aims to ensure the global competitiveness of Canada’s dairy cattle industry both on-farm and in exporting Canadian dairy genetics, while ensuring overall sustainability. To address these needs, new datasets and genomic tools will be developed to deliver a more ‘resilient’ cow. New genomic breeding tools for dairy producers and artificial intelligence processes will be implemented based on a novel selection index for resilience, which will include novel traits related to fertility, health and environmental efficiency (i.e. feed efficiency and methane emission). The new index for resilience will allow farmers to reduce costs related to poor cow fertility, diseases, and animal feed, which represent the largest expenses in milk production, resulting in an estimated annual net savings for the dairy industry of $200M.
ClosedAgriculture & Agri-food
Genomic approaches to the control of Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex
FunderGenome Alberta - 2014 Alberta Livestock Genomics Program II (ALGP2)
CompetitionDecember 31, 2018
Project Lead(s)/Co-Lead(s)Graham Plastow (University of Alberta) & Karin Orsel (University of Calgary)