• Livestock
• Economics

Demonstration of the use of social effects and crossbred and genomic information to improve selection and feed efficiency

The rate of improvement in feed efficiency in Europe is, time and again, lower than it could be. Increases in slaughter weight, non-castration, feed prices, and other factors obscure the trend. This does not mean that all these factors have a negative impact on feed efficiency. Non-castration for example improves feed efficiency. In this deliverable we studied if (1) understanding group dynamics can help to increase rate of improvement (it hardly does) and (2) if adding field data (i.e., crossbred data, via the use of genomics) to data collected on selection candidates can help to increase accuracy of selection (it does). Information collected on purebred animals has partially, for largely unknown reasons, a different genetic background, which can be captured by proper modelling and the use of genomics.