Dairy breeding and genetics

Find out how building genetics into your breeding programme can maintain herd strengths and address areas of weakness.

Dairy genetics help predict how characteristics such as milk production, increased solids or health and management traits are passed onto the next generation of cows.

The effect of breeding decisions is cumulative, meaning they build over the generations and have a key role to play in farm profitability.

We invest over £800,000 each year in genetics and are the independent source for genetic evaluations, breeding indices and analysis for all major UK dairy breeds.

Browse our information below to learn more about genetics and how we support you to make better breeding decisions.

Understand how breeding indexes and traits are calculated, how they can be used for breeding decisions and contribute to long-term profitability.

£PLI is a within breed genetic index for UK dairy farmers with all year-round calving herds.

£SCI is an across-breed genetic ranking index designed for UK spring block calving herds.

£ACI is an across-breed genetic ranking index designed for UK autumn block calving herds.

Available to dairy farmers who fully milk record, Herd Genetic Reports enable you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your herd and make informed breeding decisions.

Genomics uses a young animal’s DNA to estimate their genetic potential and genomic inbreeding, giving dairy farmers confidence to make informed breeding decisions with their youngstock.

The Dairy Semen Code of Advertising aims to ensure that UK farmers are provided with clear, relevant, up-to-date, and easily comparible data when making their breeding decisions.

UK and International bull PTAs will be updated in line with internationally agreed Interbull release dates. The next ones are:

• Tuesday 3rd December 2024
• Tuesday 1st April 2025
• Tuesday 12th August 2025

Cow results and herd summaries will be available by the Friday after the bull release dates.