DairyTalk 472: Safety Over Speed: Why Older Genomic Sires Could Slow Holstein Advancement - by Helmut Demmelhuber

This episode is based on an industry analysis examining the
growing age of elite genomic bulls at the time of commercial
deployment. The central question is whether the dairy breeding
industry is gradually sacrificing genetic progress in exchange
for greater reliability and lower marketing risk. While genomic
selection was originally designed to accelerate improvement
through shorter generation intervals, economic incentives may now
be encouraging longer sire utilization. The episode explores the
biological, economic, and strategic consequences of this trend
for breeding organizations and dairy producers. It also
highlights why one overlooked metric could reveal more about
future genetic progress than the next ranking of top bulls.