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Selective breeding in dairy cattle has traditionally prioritised the improvement of milk yield traits and, subsequently, its gross chemical composition. Milk quality is, however, a broader and multifaceted concept, including traits related to both fine chemical composition as well as processability. However, the integration of milk quality attributes into national breeding goals remains limited. This chapter reviews the genetic parameters of key yield traits, including milk, fat, protein, and lactose and their concentrations, as well as fine milk components and milk processability. Advances in large-scale phenotyping, particularly through using mid-infrared spectroscopy, have facilitated cost-effective predictions of such quality traits at minimal cost. Most of these traits are moderately to highly heritable and are characterised by sufficient additive genetic variation, indicating the potential for their inclusion in future breeding programmes.
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Milk nutritional quality
- 3 Processibility as a milk quality attribute
- 4 Large-scale phenotyping for monitoring milk quantity, nutritional quality and processability
- 5 Breeding for improved milk quantity and gross nutritional quality
- 6 Breeding for improved fine milk nutritional quality
- 7 Breeding for improved milk processability
- 8 Major genes involved in milk yield and quality attributes
- 9 The inclusion of milk yield and quality-related traits in dairy cattle breeding programmes
- 10 Conclusion and future trends
- 11 Where to look for further information
- 12 References