Optimising breeding of dairy cows: Leveraging genetics for more sustainable production

by Donagh Berry (Editor), Filippo Miglior (Contribution by), Christian Maltecca (Contribution by), Nicolas Lopez-Villalobos (Contribution by), Luiz F. Brito (Contribution by)

Overview

Dairy cow breeding continues to face several monumental challenges, namely the need to balance production and non-production traits with consumer expectations surrounding animal health, welfare, resilience and sustainability. At the same time, there is a growing body of phenotypic and genetic data which, when combined with state-of-the-art analytical techniques, can improve the precision and applicability of dairy cow breeding and contribute to achieving a greater level of sustainability for the sector.

Optimising breeding of dairy cows: Leveraging genetics for more sustainable production provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in dairy cow breeding, focussing on recent advances in the use of genomics, phenomics and other ‘omics’ technologies. The book also considers how particular technologies can be applied to achieve desired breeding goals, such as improvements in feed efficiency, heat/humidity tolerance, reproductive efficiency and longevity.

This book builds on a successful earlier volume published by Burleigh Dodds Science: Advances in breeding of dairy cattle (2019).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781835453155
Publisher:	Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing
Publication date:	09/29/2026
Series:	Burleigh Dodds Series in Agricultural Science , #186
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	650

About the Author

Professor Donagh Berry is a Senior Principal Research Officer in quantitative genetics at Teagasc, Ireland as well as holding several (inter)national professorship appointments. He is strongly engaged in third-level education and extension to a wide range of different stakeholders. He has published over 370 journal publications mostly relating to dairy cow breeding. Working across species, his research interests are in phenotyping strategies, breeding goal development and deployment, genetic evaluations and genomic predictions.

Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in the field of Animal Genomics and Biotechnology in the Department of Animal Science at University of California-Davis, USA. She serves as the bovine genome coordinator for the USDA National Animal Genome Research Program, served as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Study Committee for “Science Breakthroughs 2030: A Strategy for Food and Agricultural Research”, and is an elected Fellow and current chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Agriculture, Food, and Renewable Resources Section O. Dr. Van Eenennaam has been the recipient of many distinguished awards throughout her career.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Within and across-breed genetic diversity

• 1.Advances in understanding and improving genetic diversity in dairy cattle: Filippo Miglior, University of Guelph, Canada
• 2.Advances in strategies to promote selection whilst controlling inbreeding in dairy cattle breeding programmes: Christian Maltecca, North Carolina State University, USA;
• 3.Advances in dairy-breed crossbreeding and outbreeding in dairy cattle: Nicolas Lopez-Villalobos, Massey University, New Zealand;
• 4.Advances in beef-on-dairy crossbreeding: Luiz F. Brito, Purdue University, USA;
• 5.Challenges and opportunities in developing dual/multi-purpose dairy breeds: Johann Sölkner, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria;
• 6.Future dairy cow breeding scheme designs: Morten Kargo, Aarhus University, Denmark;

Part 2 Advances in genomics and phenomics

• 7.Advances in phenomic technologies in dairy cattle: Gareth Difford, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Norway;
• 8.Advances in phenomics from milk to deliver genetic gain in difficult to measure traits in dairy cattle: Maria Frizzarin, Irish Cattle Breeders Foundation, Ireland;
• 9.Developments in statistical techniques for analysing multi-level omic data in dairy breeding: Daniela A. L. Lourenco, University of Georgia, USA;
• 10.Advances in genomic functional annotation techniques to improve genomic prediction in dairy cattle: Yansen Chen, University of Liège, Belgium;
• 11.Advances in understanding and detection of informative genomic polymorphisms/haplotypes in dairy cattle genetics: Didier Boichard, INRAE, France;
• 12.Advances in gene editing techniques for dairy cattle: Alison Van Eenennaam, University of California-Davis, USA;

Part 3 Leveraging 'omics' technologies

• 13.Advances in microbiome-driven approaches in dairy cattle: Oscar Gonzalez-Recio, INIA Madrid, Spain;
• 14.Advances in metabolomics in dairy cattle genetics: Luca Fontanesi, University of Bologna, Italy;
• 15.Advances in transcriptomics in dairy cattle genetics: Haja Kadarmideen, Aarhus University, Denmark;
• 16.Advances in nutrigenetics/nutrigenomics in dairy cattle genetics: Juan J. Loor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA;
• 17.Advances in epigenomics in understanding intergenerational gene transfer in dairy cattle: Eveline M. Ibeagha-Awemu, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada;

Part 4 Applications

• 18.Advances in breeding indices for dairy cattle: John Cole, Council for Dairy Cattle Breeding, USA;
• 19.Advances in breeding for improved feed efficiency in dairy cattle: Mike Coffey, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), UK;
• 20.Advances in breeding strategies for environmental efficiency in dairy cattle: Eileen Wall, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), UK;
• 21.Advances in breeding for improved milk production/quality traits in dairy cattle: Giulio Visentin, University of Bologna, Italy;
• 22.Advances in breeding for improved heat/humidity tolerance in dairy cattle: Peter Hansen, University of Florida, USA;
• 23.Advances in breeding for improved health in dairy cattle: Georgios Oikonomou, University of Liverpool, UK;
• 24.Advances in breeding for reproductive efficiency in dairy cattle: Matthew Lucy, University of Missouri, USA;
• 25.Advances in breeding for calving performance in dairy cattle: Chad Dechow, The Pennsylvania State University, USA;
• 26.Advances in breeding for improved longevity in dairy cattle: Albert De Vries, University of Florida, USA;