Through a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Mike VandeHaar, animal science professor and Michigan State University (MSU) AgBioResearch faculty member, and his fellow MSU researchers have set goals to increase the efficiency and sustainability of milk production by: • Educating future leaders, voters and consumers about key practices in dairy husbandry that promote feed efficiency and sustainability. • Developing a feed-efficiency database on 8,000 genomically characterized Holstein cows.
• Determining the genetic architecture of feed efficiency and building a foundation for genomic selection of more efficient animals.
• Developing and implementing genomic breeding tools to produce cows with enhanced feed efficiency.
• Developing and implementing practical support tools to improve whole-herd feed efficiency.
The goal is not just increasing the amount of milk a cow produces, but increasing efficiency of milk production can help improve stewardship of the planet, VandeHaar said.
Additional MSU team members include Rob Tempelman, Dave Beede, Richard Pursley and Miriam Weber Nielsen. Also contributing to the project are researchers from the University of Wisconsin, Iowa State University, Wageningen UR in The Netherlands, the University of Florida, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. PD
—From Michigan Dairy Review
