Selective Breeding for Sustainability in Organic Cattle Farming Systems

Selective breeding on a wide range of biological traits across livestock populations, breeds and production systems is now possible. Ruminant livestock such as cattle are able to convert non-human edible plant material into human edible foods such as fresh milk and meat. This chapter uses dairy cattle as an example of developments in milk production through selective breeding. Cattle are the main source of fresh milk in the world, which has steadily increased over the last 60 years to meet global demand. In developing countries, the increase in milk production has largely been due to increasing animal numbers; whereas in developed countries, improved breeding, nutrition and management has led to higher milk yields per animal. To balance productivity with animal welfare and resource use there has been a shift towards a more balanced approach to selecting animals on a range of production (e.g. milk yield and composition), fitness (e.g. health and fertility plus overall survival) and resource efficiency (feed intake and methane emissions) traits. More balanced multi-trait selection has reduced the carbon footprint of production per unit product over several decades, and the sustainability footprint of cattle is expected to reduce with future selection on efficiency traits or emissions per cow.