The first genomic trait likely to be identified from the dairy industry is feed efficiency, according to those in the know from AHDB and SRUC, however, it is likely to be another year before full results will be available.

Speaking ahead of the ICAR 2017 conference in Edinburgh, AHDB Dairy's Marco Winters and Professor Mike Coffey of the SRUC, said developing new genetic and genomic traits for the industry would require worldwide collaboration, with initiatives driven forward with assistance from the Global Dry Matter Initiative, which is a collaboration of eight different countries worldwide.

“Initial work on genetic selection focused on outputs, such as milk yield, before we moved on to look at health, fertility and so on," said Marco Winters.

"However, gathering data for these types of future traits is far more complex. Previously we could use the data farmers gathered themselves, but, traits such as feed efficiency, are very costly to measure on an individual farm basis, therefore we need collate data worldwide.”

Professor Mike Coffey, who leads SRUC’s animal breeding and genomics team, agreed.

“We cannot do this on our own anymore,” he said. “The phenotypes we need in the future will be difficult and costly to produce, which means it is now impractical to rely on purely British data.

“We are also looking at a new approach within the UK, contracting nucleus farms which will record data on a much more detailed level. That data can then be shared with our international partners, and used to create these new traits," he said adding that feed efficiency, is likely to be the first trait with results expected within the next 12 months.

“Feed efficiency is a key trait of interest as it will help us identify those animals which convert their feed into milk most efficiently and so can produce a robust milk supply on a lower volume of feed, while still remaining healthy and fertile,” Mr Winters concluded.