President's Perspective

Change the TPI formula?

The 2010 National Holstein Convention was a much anticipated one. The recent changes in genomics and to the TPI formula, instigated much discussion and debate among breeders leading up to and during the convention. One of the resolutions brought to the floor and passed by our membership was to place more emphasis on type in our TPI formula. I agree with this recommendation whole heartedly. Currently our TPI gives 25% weighting towards conformation. This is the lowest emphasis placed on type in quite some time. While there is much sentiment towards taking the weighting away from health traits and placing it towards type, I would instead encourage Holstein Association USA to reduce the emphasis on production. While many breeders want to argue that the heritability of health traits is too low, I don’t feel we can argue about the merit of health traits. Few dairymen tell me any more, “we don’t get enough milk from our cows”. Instead people want healthy cows that last a long time, breed back easily, can have a calf unassisted and are a pleasure to work with. We have seen over history that any time we place importance in our selection indexes on certain traits, the Holstein breed is capable of making great progress. That is why we can’t ignore the importance of heath traits in our cow population.

It is also interesting to me that USDA’s NM$ now gives less emphasis towards production than does our own TPI formula. Net Merit now places 35% weighting on production compared to TPI placing 42% on production. Years ago 100% of Net Merit was based on production. To me the ideal balance of production, type and health would be to weight the TPI formula to 35% production, 35% type and 30% health traits. The current emphasis is 42% production, 33% health and 25% type. My proposed change would be a significant increase in type, but this is what I feel many of our association’s membership is asking for. This would also put equal emphasis on production as does Net Merit. To me it is important that the Holstein Association’s TPI formula distinguishes itself from Net Merit, so to give dairymen two separate selection tools to use in their breeding programs, instead of trying to mimic each other. We would do this by placing importance on PTAT. This would also mimic Canada’s emphasis towards type in LPI, while not sacrificing the importance of health traits.

The 35% weighting towards production that I would advocate should also be examined thoroughly to how it should be split in regards to fat and protein. Currently the split is roughly 60% pounds fat, 40% pounds protein. That may still be the correct split. With out running the economic numbers, I don’t know what is right, but I do know many foreign buyers of genetics want more emphasis on fat. And with the Dairy Price Stabilization Program being advocated by our association, it may also be time to study whether %fat or %protein should somehow be included in TPI. If indeed we are someday given a production base on number of pounds milk sold, wouldn’t it make sense that dairymen then look to premiums paid for %fat and %protein in their breeding programs in order to increase their incomes? While that may be too radical a change now, it is something to think about for the future and I do feel slightly reducing production emphasis in TPI does dovetail with what Holstein USA is proposing with the DPSP.

Whether you place close attention to TPI in breeding your herd or not, it is important towards the evolution of our breed. It determines which bulls are sampled and how they are sold and used in our cow population. Dairymen across the globe want longer lasting, profitable cows that are enjoyable to work with in their herds. I feel increasing type in TPI without sacrificing health traits will make our TPI formula the standard to achieve this goal.

Sincerely,
Mark Kerndt