Genetic Trends in the National Herd
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2 min read
This page tracks genetic trends in the national herd, noting improvements in economically important traits. The genetic merit of the national herd has improved or held steady across a range of economically important traits. The traits covered are Breeding Worth, Production Efficiency, Robustness traits, Farmer Opinion traits, Conformation traits and Additional traits. Breeding Worth (BW) and Production Worth (PW) are valuable tools you can use to make sound decisions about breeding, culling, and buying. BW reflects a cow's potential to breed profitable offspring, while PW focuses on a cow's lifelong profit-making ability.
Further reading
Is New Zealand's national herd genetic merit improving?
The genetic merit of the national herd has improved or held steady across a range of economically important traits.
More information on what the breeding values are and how they are calculated.
Genetic trends
The graphs below show how the genetic merit of cows in the national herd is trending for individual traits, updated December 2024.
The colours and abbreviations are as follows:
- Ayrshire = A in yellow
- Holstein-Friesian = HF in blue
- Holstein-Friesian-Jersey crossbred = HFJ in dark green
- Jersey = J in green
Breeding Worth
The rate of genetic gain in Breeding Worth for the past 10 years is $15.73 for Jerseys, $19.04 for Holstein-Friesians, $19.11 for Holstein-Friesian-Jersey cross and $8.60 for Ayrshires. The overall rate of genetic gain in Breeding Worth for the national herd in the past 10 years is $17.74 per year.
Genetic trend in Breeding Worth ($).
Production Efficiency traits
Robustness traits
Farmer Opinion traits
Body and Dairy Conformation traits
Udder Conformation traits
Additional traits
Try out the breeding decisions tools below...
Additional Resources
NZAEL Criteria for Sire, Cow and Herd Statistics
PDF
Guide
33 KB
This document outlines the criteria for sires, cows, and herds to be included in NZAEL data
Additional links
Animal Herd Averages
/tools/animal-herd-averages/Bull Search
/tools/bull-search/NZAEL
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