From August 2016, a new economic index is available for Italian Holstein bulls called the IES (Indice Economico Salute, translated as the Health Economic Index).
This index evaluates the economic balance of the productive life of the cow considering: the expected incomes (milk, fat, protein), feeding costs (from calf to milking cow) and economic losses due to most common health problems such as infertility, mastitis, etc.
In the IES the average economical market values and genomic index of the involved traits have been used in order to estimate the expected economic difference between a cow (bull daughter) and the genetic base. It will be expressed in . This new index will join the present national breeding composite index (gPFT) allowing breeders to choose the breeding strategy which best fits their business environment.
This new index reaffirms Intermizoos commitment to profitability, which has always been a top priority for us. The IES highlights sires such as: Magriffe, Milito and Savoia. In addition, among the younger genomics, bulls like Leopardo, Parallel PC and Scaglietti have done well.
Sires backed by different pedigree and genetic routes can now show their actual potential for breeder profitability more easily.