Breeding for improved heat tolerance
Dairy UP’s P6a Resilient Cattle (heat tolerance) project has generated new knowledge on how dairy cattle respond to heat. These findings are expected to contribute to future refinement of the Heat Tolerance Australian Breeding Value developed by DairyBio and published by DataGene.
In recent months, the Dairy UP team has been busy analysing their results. They used innovative data sources (from rumen sensors) and enhanced machine learning techniques to develop new phenotypic data that can be potentially applied to the Heat Tolerance ABV. Until now, the Heat Tolerance ABV has been based solely on genomic information, which has limited its reliability.
About Dairy UP
Dairy UP is a collaborative research, development and extension program for the NSW dairy industry. It aims to unlock the potential of pastures, cows, water and milk to increase productivity and profitability, and de-risk the industry and develop new markets.