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WELLNESS IS NOW A PROFITABLE CHOICE
BUILD A HEALTHIER HERD THROUGH BETTER GENETICS NOW WITH CALF WELLNESS TRAITS
Learn more about CLARIFIDE Plus by watching a series of short educational videos (click here).
- CLARIFIDE® Plus is the first commercially available dairy genetic evaluation specifically designed for cow and calf wellness traits in U.S. Holstein cattle.
- CLARIFIDE Plus genomic predictions for wellness traits provide reliable assessments of genetic risk factors for economically relevant diseases in Holstein cattle.
- CLARIFIDE Plus is the only genomic test that allows producers to rank animals with the Dairy Wellness Profit Index® (DWP$®) which is based on traits that affect health, performance and lifetime profit of cows and now calves.
- DWP$ describes more genetic variation in profitability than other indexes, allowing for faster progress toward greater profitability.
- Inclusion of the new calf wellness traits creates an opportunity for producers to realize part of these lifetime economic gains earlier in life—as early as near birth, occurring approximately nine months after implementing breeding selection strategies.
- CLARIFIDE Plus enhances the ability of herds to improve the outcomes of all six key financial drivers of net farm income1; by improving the ability to genetically select for key performance and wellness-related traits with the inclusion of two unique components developed by Zoetis: wellness traits for cows and calf wellness traits.
- Cow and calf wellness genomic predictions were developed because of the commitment by Zoetis to the continuum of care for dairy cattle. Zoetis strives to improve dairy wellness and understand genetic factors impacting resistance to common diseases in dairy cattle. The recently announced (Feb 2018) development of the first Holstein Reference Genome at Zoetis allowed us to map regions of the genome influencing disease outcomes in calves. Discoveries will lead to improvements in the reliability of future predictions for dairy wellness.
Genomic testing with CLARIFIDE® Plus can help identify females with the greatest potential to help reach herd health and profitability goals from calves to cows.
- Health events have a significant impact on herd health, saleable milk and producer profitability.
- Profitability is enhanced when a dairy has the advantage of mature cows that are productive and healthy for multiple lactations. To reach their full potential and longevity, animals need to remain healthy from birth until calving, and then cows must stay healthy and be reproductively sound, in addition to producing milk.
- Six cow wellness traits and three new calf wellness traits were developed from millions of dairy cattle within U.S. commercial herds, using cutting edge genetic evaluation methodology to achieve average reliabilities of 50% or greater for the six wellness traits2 and average reliabilities of 39% for the three calf wellness traits in young animals3
- Wellness traits are expressed as genomic Standardized Transmitting Abilities (STA), similar to how type traits are expressed, but using a different scale and where 100 is average and higher values are more desirable, indicating a reduced risk of disease or mortality
- First year external field study results showed that the lowest 25 percent of genomic animals for their respective disease risks in each herd are approximately two times more likely to have mastitis, lameness, metritis, displaced abomasum, retained placenta and ketosis than the best 25 percent of animals genomically4
For more information on CLARIFIDE Plus, please download:
Additional CLARIFIDE Plus Resources
CLARIFIDE® Plus offers U.S. Holstein producers the most comprehensive package of trait predictions and economic indexes for health events to empower genetic selection strategies.
- The use of Dairy Wellness Profit Index (DWP$) would be expected to offer similar selection emphasis to that achieved by Net Merit (NM$) on traditional traits, but applies additional selection emphasis on cow and calf wellness traits to change rankings and increase the amount of profitability identified and possible over their lifetime
- Wellness Trait Index® (WT$®) estimates differences in expected lifetime profit associated with risk of diseases in cows (mastitis, lameness, metritis, retained placenta, displaced abomasum and ketosis) in addition to adding the economic value for the polled gene
- The Calf Wellness Index™ (CW$™) estimates the difference in expected lifetime profit associated with risk of calfhood diseases and early death losses by including calf livability, calf respiratory disease and calf scours.
- DWP$ differs from other economic indexes because it includes direct predictions for economically important diseases in cows and calves. By including more characteristics affecting profitability, DWP$ describes more genetic variation in profitability than other indexes
- With the use of DWP$, producers can potentially make approximately $47 more profit per selected female over 10 years using a 15% culling selection strategy (not including the value of additional offspring), even when test cost is higher than a NM$-based ranking3
CLARIFIDE® Ultra Plus carries the same trait predictions for production and wellness traits as CLARIFIDE Plus, but with more genetic markers and greater reliability.
- Nearly 62,000 markers, with 61,000 reported to the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding for additional genetic conditions, traits and/or parentage
- More accurately identifies elite animals
- Validates elite females that will enter more advanced reproductive management, such as embryo transfer or in vitro fertilization.
- Confirms elite male genetics for entry into A.I. testing programs
- Builds greater genomic reliability into an animal’s offspring