Introducing AltaValue

Although it has been used internally for nearly two years, Alta’s August 2007 primary print materials include AltaValue ratings for individual sires in for the first time. You’ll find them included in our Sire Summaries as well as Holstein catalogue.

What is AltaValue?
There are a number of “composite” indexes available to producers that rank industry sires according to a host of traits. AltaValue is similar in the respect that it places weights on a range of economically important traits. It’s different too. While several rankings like Net Merit $ or Cheese Merit $ attempt to bestow a dollar value to the genetic offering, AltaValue takes it a couple of steps further by expressing it in today’s dollar terms, thereby allowing for a weighting on semen fertility to be included. The objective in creating the AltaValue index is to bring about a more business-like process to sire selection, by allowing the investment cost to be compared against the economic benefits that will be received.

What’s included in Alta Value?
The adjacent table provides a summary of the traits that are included in the AltaValue index, the economic value of the benefits they deliver and thus the weight each trait is afforded in the index. Much of the research into the economic values comes directly from USDA, the same basis for weights in the Net Merit formula. AltaValue does place a greater emphasis on Daughter Pregnancy Rate, however, and includes higher weights on both Udder Composite and Feet & Leg Composite. To this, a dollar value is added or subtracted to account for the economic impact of semen fertility.

Benefits of the AltaValue Linear
Alongside the creation of the AltaValue index, Alta has developed a linear that makes it easier to assess the economic benefits delivered by individual sires. It starts with the creation of three key breeding focus areas: Production, Health and Conformation. Each area has the potential to deliver significant economic benefit. By graphing each individual trait on the same scale (in Standard Deviation form) one can compare better where the real improvements are being made. Furthermore, by providing a summary of the economic benefits from each trait and providing a total for each focus area dairy producers can more readily determine if an individual sire delivers on areas important to them.

While viewing sire information using the more traditional bull proof linear can also be useful, the AltaValue approach is about providing focus on the traits deemed to be most critical in delivering real economic impact to dairy producers. And by combining linear graph and actual dollars, it allows sire selection decisions to be made in a much more business-like manner.

Additional Benefits with AltaValue
Let’s say that it normally takes 8 doses of semen to create a milking replacement for your dairy (3 doses per pregnancy, thus 6 for each heifer calf, plus 2 doses to account for death loss). If the sire you choose to use is priced at $25, then your genetic investment per milking replacement is 8 x $25 = $200. By knowing the investment you make, and being able to compare it directly to the benefits offered – expressed in today’s dollar terms – the level of clarity on investment versus reward increases dramatically

The AltaValue approach is not a revolution but an evolution to the genetic selection process. The objective is both to make genetic decision-making process easier and at the same time demonstrate the extent to which a focus on genetics can improve the profitability of your future herd replacements as well as your dairy. Don’t leave an important aspect of your dairy’s future to chance. Use AltaValue as a primary tool to chart your course.

Posted Jul 17th

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