Genomic breeding value index

“Dairy cattle breeding occupies a special place in the agro-industrial complex of the Vologda region. The importance of this industry is determined by its high share in the total volume of agricultural products - more than 65%. Thus, among the subjects of the Northwestern Federal District for MILK production, the region ranks second in milk yield. That is why we decided to become closer and more accessible to our clients who previously sent samples to Moscow. We want to develop and support farms in the region, contributing to the further development of the industry in the region,” commented Roman Pavlenko, General DIRECTOR of LIC Agroplem.    

“For more than 120 years, selection and breeding work has been carried out in the Vologda region and it has yielded results. So the results of 2022 speak for themselves: these are record figures over the past 29 years. The farms produced 605,000 tons of milk, with an average productivity per cow of more than 8345 kg. But we don’t stop there and include all three main factors: balanced feeding rations, selection and breeding genetic work and the use of modern technologies for livestock conditions,” the press service quoted Mikhail Nikolaevich Glazkov, Deputy Governor of the Vologda Region, who was present at the opening divisions of the laboratory and testing center Agroplem.

Speaking about intensification, experts involved in dairy cattle breeding note that in order to achieve high performance, special attention should be paid to the most significant areas of production, such as feeding, genetics, reproduction, and maintenance. The shares of feeding and genetics in increasing efficiency are 40 and 30%, respectively. Moreover, this requires reliable data, so the Agroplem division, opened in the Vologda region, analyzes feed using NIR infrared spectroscopy - an effective and fast way to analyze the nutritional value of ingredients, and the genetics laboratory provides a service to confirm the origin. The laboratory and research center division operates according to GOST/ISO 17025-2019 standards.

At the event, managers and specialists of dairy farms were also presented with the company’s service, which has been available to all Agroplem clients since May of this year - a genomic forecast of the breeding value of dairy cattle , based on milk productivity data obtained in the Agroplem milk quality selection laboratory.

Currently, the assessment includes five signs of milk productivity - milk yield in 305 days, kg, milk fat and protein, in% and kg. Agroplem also calculates the animal’s consolidated economic index.

Agroplem's genomic assessment includes testing for monogenic diseases, milk protein genes, polled and color genes. Also, by genotyping the animal’s ancestors, the origin can be confirmed, and this will not need to be done additionally for breeding sales.

“Creating our own assessment system will significantly reduce the dependence of Russian livestock production on imported genetic material. Inclusion in the general database of phenotypic data of milk productivity of the Vologda and surrounding regions is important for scaling up the work to create a domestic index of breeding value and increase the reliability of genetic assessment,” comments Vladimir Avdeenko, director of the directorate for the development of agro- and biotechnologies of the Innopraktika company, which is a member of a consortium created at the end of 2022 to develop a domestic system for assessing the breeding qualities of dairy cattle and productivity and is already productively working in the Voronezh region and Krasnodar region.