Advances in dairy cattle breeding to improve heat tolerance

Description

Elevated temperature can impact dairy cows in many aspects, leading to a decline in productivity and ultimately the profitability of the industry. There is a need to breed for heat tolerant dairy cattle to mitigate these impacts. This chapter outlines technologies to breed for more heat tolerant dairy cattle, exploiting either between or within breed genetic variation in the trait. Finally, the chapter discusses future perspectives on the use of different tools to achieve accelerated improvements of this important trait, and provides detailed guidance on further reading in this area.

Table of contents

1 Introduction 2 Utilisation of tropically adapted breeds for cross-breeding 3 Selection for heat-tolerant dairy cattle 4 Future perspectives on breeding for heat tolerance 5 Conclusion 6 Acknowledgements 7 Where to look for further information 8 References