The Moos Room™

00;00;11;03 - 00;00;47;08
Speaker 1
And welcome to The Moos Room. Is Brad back again? I have arrived back from my trip to Europe, where I was speaking over there, some conference on some of our work here at Minnesota on crossbreeding and also visiting some farms in Germany and the Netherlands. I went to a farm show and lots of different farms, learned lots of different things about dairy farming, technology, genetics, you name it.

00;00;47;10 - 00;01;19;11
Speaker 1
I had lots of fun, recording this a little early in the morning. Got a little jetlag. I just arrived back yesterday, so my body thinks it's way later in the afternoon. So I will, podcast. I think I'll talk about my trip next week. I have to arrange all my thoughts and some of the things I learned about environmental stuff and genetics, and I need to to look back at all that and kind of give you a perspective on what's happening in, in those countries.

00;01;19;11 - 00;01;40;21
Speaker 1
And some of the things to look forward to. We might get, though. So one of the topics that I heard a lot about in Germany and the Netherlands was inbreeding. And how can we combat inbreeding? I think farmers were talking about inbreeding. A lot of farmers that I talked to, at least the ones that were crossbreeding, inbreeding, was their concern.

00;01;40;21 - 00;02;13;19
Speaker 1
So let's talk about inbreeding. Can we slow it down and what can we do about it? Back in 2000, when I was a young grad student, I listened to a presentation by Doctor Ben McDaniel. He was from North Carolina State University, and he talked about uncontrolled inbreeding. And doctor McDaniel was a renowned dairy cattle genetics expert. So even 20 years ago, he stated that uncontrolled inbreeding created a lot of relatedness of animals within dairy breeds.

00;02;13;22 - 00;02;38;19
Speaker 1
However, definitely inbreeding levels were not as high as what they were in 2000 as what they are maybe today in 2025. And he stated that with modern and future genetic technologies, you know, this was 25 years ago thinking about maybe genomics back then, that we would probably see an increase in inbreeding and a decrease in reproductive efficiency and survival of cows.

00;02;38;20 - 00;03;02;16
Speaker 1
So let's talk a little bit about inbreeding. And there's a new study that just came out from Italy that talks about inbreeding effects on dairy cattle survival. So inbreeding occurs when closely related sires and dams are mated. There's a probability or an an increase in probability that the two genes at the same locus on the chromosome are identical by descent.

00;03;02;18 - 00;03;41;25
Speaker 1
So this increase in homozygous genotypes and a decrease in heterozygous genotypes may lead to higher frequency of harmful recessive alleles, and these animals are subject to inbreeding depression. So we've certainly seen that a lot of genetic defects have popped up recently in many different breeds Holsteins, Jersey, Brown Swiss that are probably the cause from inbreeding. If you think about inbreeding from an economic standpoint, recent research has shown that every 1% increase in a cows inbreeding coefficient can cost about $24 in lifetime profit.

00;03;41;25 - 00;04;08;26
Speaker 1
You know, somebody might say, oh, well, that's not very much money. $24 is not much for an increase in inbreeding, but at the rate of increase in inbreeding for cows, maybe it's something that we at least we need to start thinking about, because cows at 15% inbreeding level have over $1,800 in lost cows that are 20% inbred, we could see losses over $22,000 in their lifetime.

00;04;08;26 - 00;04;36;06
Speaker 1
So I think economically inbreeding may certainly decrease farm profit. We might not see that today, but I think we'll definitely start seeing that into the future. So what does inbreeding look like in today's dairy breeds. And we'll go through all of the the most popular dairy breeds. So basically six dairy breeds in the US as of 2025. So this is just recently from the US Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding.

00;04;36;08 - 00;05;14;11
Speaker 1
The average inbreeding level of females within a breed is 8.4 for Ayrshire, 7.6 for Brown Swiss, 8.2 for Guernsey, 10.9 for Holstein, 9.3 for Jersey and 5.1 for Milking Shorthorn, so the average in breeding has surpassed the recommended inbreeding coefficient of 6.25. That minimizes the negative consequences of fertility, health and survival. So when you look at these absolute numbers, it might really not mean much because it's like, well, where where did they start?

00;05;14;13 - 00;05;39;28
Speaker 1
Where did they go? Well, during the last 20 years or so, inbreeding has increased 5 to 6 percentage points for Holsteins. And from two and a half to three and a half percentage points for other breeds. Basically, it's led to an increase in inbreeding by about 0.24 for Holstein, 0.15 for Brown Swiss, 0.14 for Guernsey and 0.12 for Jersey.

00;05;39;28 - 00;06;04;14
Speaker 1
Across the last 25 years. So we should really look at the change in inbreeding. So if you think about it from the last year or so, inbreeding has been increasing at an alarming rate, least I think it has been increasing at a most definitely an alarming rate. If you look at Holsteins. So even if we just look at the last couple of years.

00;06;04;14 - 00;06;35;05
Speaker 1
So in 2023, Holstein inbreeding 10.17 2025 .89. That's 0.7 increase in just two years. So 0.3 per year in the Holstein. The jersey maybe not so much went from 8.9 in 20 23 to 9.3. So still point four Holstein has been increasing at a exponential rate. If you look at it. I've graphed all these inbreeding coefficients out just from 1995.

00;06;35;07 - 00;07;10;04
Speaker 1
And if we think about 1995, Holsteins were at 3.67, Jersey 4.77, the rest of the breeds lower than five as well, Holstein 3.67. And if you kind of look at a graph of inbreeding coefficients, obviously they've been going up quite steadily since 1995. There was kind of a huge jump in about 2017, 2018, and it really skyrocketed really fast in those years, probably at the rate of increase in genomic technology for genotyping of animals.

00;07;10;04 - 00;07;34;15
Speaker 1
And all of that has certainly increased inbreeding coefficients. Now let's look at the bulls. If you look at proven bulls in the Holstein breed, average genomic inbreeding level about 14, maybe a little bit less than 14. Pedigree inbreeding 12%. If you look at the young bulls. So the young genomic bulls their inbreeding coefficients close to 16. So it's bulls that are 16% inbred.

00;07;34;18 - 00;07;56;22
Speaker 1
It's interesting I when I was in Germany farmers were talking about inbreeding and trying to use highly inbred bulls because they think that we can maybe combat inbreeding by using very inbred bulls. It kind of goes back to the plant genetics line use, you know, inbred lines. You cross two inbred lines and you get hybrid vigor. So we'd have within breed hybrid vigor.

00;07;56;25 - 00;08;17;02
Speaker 1
And so that that is the thought whether that works or not, I don't know. I don't know if it will work in dairy breeds. Who knows that it might we don't have very many inbred bulls or highly inbred bulls, but one of them that were they were certainly talking about there's a bull from genetics called Geno Source.

00;08;17;02 - 00;08;47;01
Speaker 1
Ellison. So, no daughters. He's a captain out of a captain. So captain is the top, merit bull in the Holstein breed right now. So he's captain out of a captain daughter. And his inbreeding coefficient. Genomically 34.7, 34.7%. Inbred on this animal. So his inbreeding coefficient is really high. So could we use him as a cross for, say, inbred lines and see what happens?

00;08;47;01 - 00;09;12;23
Speaker 1
Possibly. I think the biggest thing comes down to in these bulls is if you look at the sires of sons that are highly related to the breed bulls like super sire mogul, oh man, planet man, oh man, shuttle numero uno, bookworm Freddy is up there. Bolton Mtoto Mtoto is an old bull from 1993 highly related to the breed.

00;09;12;23 - 00;09;39;14
Speaker 1
Other interesting fact a bull from 1965 is still highly related to the Holstein breed today. Around Oak Ridge. Apple elevation. So elevation still shows up in the pedigree of most Holstein animals. 1965 still highly related to the Holstein breed counts on dairy cattle breeding lists. Out cross listing of bulls that you might look at. Actually, if you look at their list.

00;09;39;14 - 00;10;10;22
Speaker 1
Dinosaurs. Captain number one bull in the Holstein breed is on the out cross list. His inbreeding coefficient eight point for his future inbreeding 12%. So I'm not sure that he's, necessarily an out cross bull for the Holstein breed. What if we look at Jersey and their inbreeding on bulls? Genomic inbreeding on bulls 8% for proven bulls and genomic inbreeding for the young bulls, about 10%.

00;10;10;22 - 00;10;39;01
Speaker 1
So it kind of follows the trend or the females in in the in the Jersey breed, if you look at the sires of sons that are related in the Jersey breed, probably some more popular ones. Viceroy Valentino Harris got made, so used a lot of him in New Jersey. Breed rock L.A Paramount 1995 birth day. Chrome. Chrome is a bull that is highly related to the Jersey breed.

00;10;39;04 - 00;11;04;06
Speaker 1
He has also carrier of the genetic defect genes that has spread all over the Jersey breed, with him being highly related to the Jersey breed and his genes all over. There's an increase in Jones, certainly in the Jersey breed, and his cause of inbreeding. Highland magic Duncan, born in 1980, is also very highly related to the Jersey breed, so a lot of Jersey animals have Highland magic.

00;11;04;06 - 00;11;42;09
Speaker 1
Duncan, born in 1980, in their pedigree. So it's interesting to to think about inbreeding in these bulls and cows and what what can we do. So how can we stop this increase in inbreeding and potential loss of genetic diversity within dairy breeds? It doesn't really have an easy answer. Not at all. John Cole, who's with Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, provided some thoughts and, recent perspectives paper that he that he had on inbreeding and kind of what he thought was first farmers and the industry really need to decide if we're concerned about inbreeding or not.

00;11;42;11 - 00;12;07;23
Speaker 1
Some are, some are not. And we certainly need to act because the data doesn't lie and shows that inbreeding has been increasing at an alarming rate. So recently, some articles have stated that out crossing or selecting lower net bulls may provide some relief without sacrificing genetic gain. Are we really willing to sacrifice genetic gain to select bulls that help stabilize the inbreeding levels within dairy herds?

00;12;07;23 - 00;12;38;22
Speaker 1
Another thought could be that we make out cross between genetic programs that I organization. Schools within AI organizations are becoming small populations within breeds. And possibly by crossing these genetic lines at bull studs, we might alleviate some short time inbreeding. Probably not long term inbreeding, however, will cross. Breeding of dairy cattle become the norm? Many large dairy herds within the US all have crossbred cows, more than likely because of the increase in inbreeding.

00;12;38;24 - 00;13;06;16
Speaker 1
So let's talk about a couple breeds and some recent research here. So recently, just this past week, a study came out looking at inbreeding depression and stability in Italian Holstein dairy cattle. So this was in Italian Holsteins. Italian Holsteins are very similar to US Holsteins. They use the same genetics and are quite a little mini population of US genetics.

00;13;06;16 - 00;13;40;28
Speaker 1
Objective of this study was to investigate and really quantify the effect of inbreeding depression on the stability of these Holstein cows. What really is stability? Well, it's, it's a trait that defines the cows ability to remain alive and productive within a herd over different time periods. So in this study, they looked at five different stability traits. So survival from first to second, calving survival from second to third, third to fourth, cumulative survival of first to third calving and cumulative survival from first to fourth calving.

00;13;40;28 - 00;14;10;01
Speaker 1
So they used, inbreeding measures to really determine the effect of inbreeding depression on survivability. So really across all five stability traits, as inbreeding levels increased, the probability of cows staying in the herd decreased. Obviously, the magnitude of this inbreeding depression was greater for traits that covered the cumulative period. So from first to third, Kevin, you're first to fourth calving compared to those that spanned a single calving interval.

00;14;10;03 - 00;14;34;11
Speaker 1
This suggests that the deleterious effects of inbreeding accumulate over a cows productive life span. They also did some comparisons of cows that were most inbred compared to cows that were least inbred, and it showed that the most inbred cows showed a one and a half to 3% lower stability than the least inbred cows. Cows that are extremely inbred, so 40%.

00;14;34;11 - 00;15;00;22
Speaker 1
So getting close to that captain, out of a captain face losses exceeding 15% in their probability of surviving from first to fourth calving. So basically, as inbreeding increases, we see a drastic reduction in livability. And they did a lot of comparisons in this study and basically found that most of the differences that were seen were related to current inbreeding.

00;15;00;22 - 00;15;29;12
Speaker 1
So inbreeding within the last few years, what's causing a lot of these issues, not necessarily past inbreeding but recent inbreeding. If we think about it, the Italian Holstein population showed an increase in inbreeding levels across time before genomic selection. The pedigree inbreeding rate was 0.14 per year. After genomic selection, it rose to 0.47 a year. So very similar to what the US Holstein breed sees as well.

00;15;29;12 - 00;16;00;02
Speaker 1
So basically, the study found that inbreeding reduces longevity. So high inbreeding levels lead to lower stay ability. Recent inbreeding is the primary color red. It's responsible for the decline in stability. And ancient inbreeding is not. So inbreeding in this height Italian hosting study showed. So it seems like there's maybe a little bit of an issue with inbreeding in Holsteins, especially in Italy, to reduce the survivability.

00;16;00;02 - 00;16;23;16
Speaker 1
And I did a little analysis myself of Jersey. So Jersey is obviously the second largest breed in the US. We still see tremendous growth in milk production. And recent research had indicated that all North American Jersey bulls can be traced back to two Jersey Bulls secret signal observer, who was born in 1953, and Advancers sleeping jester, who was born in 1951.

00;16;23;16 - 00;16;52;11
Speaker 1
So two of observer sons, Observer Chocolate Soldier and SS Quicksilver of Fall, never they were both born in the 1960s, had a relationship to the Jersey breed of 14.4 and 12.8, so quicksilver is found in the lineage of Holland Magic. Duncan. Remember, he was the bull that still had a lot of genes in the Jersey breed. Relatedness and chocolate soldier is found in Mason Boomer sooner.

00;16;52;11 - 00;17;22;03
Speaker 1
Beretta and his sire Boomer sooner to name a great few Jersey Bulls. So jester, going back to 1951, is found in impulse to the Danish bull, Danish Jersey bull and Imperial and Vaucluse sleeping Serval. So more Canadian influence. There's not really much talk about inbreeding in the Jersey breed, at least from my perspective, and what the solution may be to minimize the increase in inbreeding within Jersey.

00;17;22;03 - 00;17;50;08
Speaker 1
So if we think about average inbreeding in in the Jersey breed, it's basically been increasing by about 0.25 every year. And inbreeding kind of plateaued from 2003 to 2014. And this could be to due to a few factors, probably could be partly due to the gratitude cow that was found to have 20% red Holstein genes in her pedigree.

00;17;50;11 - 00;18;21;11
Speaker 1
So some of her sons cannon garden were used heavily in the Jersey breed, and this leveling off of average inbreeding could also be due to Danish jersey influence of Limburg and Impulse. Although lamb, sired by Highland Duncan Lester, who is also has a high relationship to the Jersey breed despite being born in 1985, so the average inbreeding increased .23 per year, and we know that the inbreeding levels are over nine in the Jersey breed right now, it's well above the 6.25.

00;18;21;11 - 00;18;48;25
Speaker 1
Again, that threshold that really minimizes the effects of inbreeding depression and that the continued rate of increase in inbreeding jerseys could be how they probably surpass 10% next year and could be at 12% within the next five years. Obviously, that causes a lot of angst when dairy farmers talking about inbreeding, lower fertility levels, lower survivability levels increase in these genetic defects.

00;18;48;25 - 00;19;15;11
Speaker 1
We see them all the time. There's probably some new ones that are popping up and that haven't been reported yet that are maybe going to come out within the next few years. I'm sure we'll be hearing more about them. Certainly things to be thinking about. So maybe we need to have a concerted effort on increasing genetic diversity in breeding programs and sire selection on farms, and continue to make genetic diversity a top goal to improve all dairy breeds.

00;19;15;11 - 00;19;35;26
Speaker 1
So dairy cattle need to be resilient to adapt to continuous change within the dairy industry. We all need to be good stewards of the dairy breeds, no doubt about it. However, we all need to have a concerted effort on increasing genetic diversity in breeding programs and really make genetic diversity a top goal in our dairy herds. I think the time for action is now.

00;19;36;03 - 00;20;01;18
Speaker 1
We keep saying that we should do it now. We should do it now, but nobody ever does anything about it. We need to examine the true inbreeding levels in our dairy herds. We need to challenge our genetic providers to supply bulls with low genomic inbreeding. We can implement mating strategies to actively manage homozygous genomic testing. Genomic test for animals.

00;20;01;18 - 00;20;29;22
Speaker 1
To figure out what the true inbreeding level is in your herds, and obviously, we should join the conversation about genetic diversity in industry meetings, breed association meetings, and discussions with AI representatives. And some people will turn to cross breeding. No doubt about it. This is what I heard when I was in Germany. In the Netherlands. These farmers are frustrated and they're just going to turn to cross-breeding to help alleviate those issues.

00;20;29;24 - 00;20;50;05
Speaker 1
So hopefully you learned a little bit about inbreeding, kind of the status of inbreeding in in the dairy breeds. Hopefully I didn't inflame you too much. And my talk about inbreeding and how to combat that. But I think it's important I think it's one of the topics that we're going to have to deal with in the next five years within the dairy industry is inbreeding.

00;20;50;05 - 00;21;09;12
Speaker 1
And with that, if you have any comments, questions or scathing rebuttals, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll I'm happy to discuss with anybody. It's, wonderful to discuss all of these topics. And with that I think we'll leave it there. Hopefully you have a good day