Miles Asha M, Parker Gaddis Kristen L, Cole John B, Fourdraine Robert H
Animal Genomics & Improvement Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705.
Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, Bowie, MD 20716.
JDS Commun. 2025 Jan 10;6(3):458-463. doi: 10.3168/jdsc.2024-0645. eCollection 2025 May.
Sustainable agriculture is best defined as a balance of practices that promote economic vitality, protect the natural environment, and build healthy communities in the present without compromising the future. The dairy industry has achieved tremendous gains in productive efficiency following decades of work with these goals in mind. A major tool contributing to this progress is the US National Cooperator Database (NCD), developed in partnership with key industry groups. Involving a complex system of both domestic and international data sharing, the NCD now includes >9 million genotypes, >100 million pedigrees, and >100 million lactation records. The primary outputs of this system are national genetic and genomic evaluations, published tri-annually. Greater genetic gains have resulted in faster rates of inbreeding, a well-established antagonist to cow health and performance. Dairy genetics are traded all over the world, and the NCD enables the monitoring of inbreeding at the global population level. Dairy systems are continually evolving thanks to technology advancements, changing consumer values, and resource availability; frequent interrogation of the NCD can facilitate the early detection of changing industry trends that affect the accuracy of existing evaluations, but also highlight the need for improvement tools that are just as dynamic as the dairy industry. An industry-wide effort is underway to develop a herd-level sustainability metrics platform that would support dairy producer ability to farm and track their progress in key health and production areas. This pre-competitive collaboration among dairy industry groups ensures the reliable flow of accurate data so we can continue to develop tools to support the dairy producer in the present and future.
可持续农业的最佳定义是在促进经济活力、保护自然环境和建设健康社区之间实现平衡，且不损害未来发展。在数十年朝着这些目标努力之后，乳制品行业在生产效率方面取得了巨大进步。促成这一进展的一个主要工具是与关键行业团体合作开发的美国国家合作数据库（NCD）。NCD涉及一个复杂的国内外数据共享系统，目前包含超过900万个基因型、超过1亿个系谱和超过1亿条泌乳记录。该系统的主要产出是每三年发布一次的全国遗传和基因组评估。更大的遗传进展导致近亲繁殖率加快，而近亲繁殖是奶牛健康和性能的一个公认的不利因素。乳制品遗传学在全球范围内交易，NCD能够在全球种群水平上监测近亲繁殖情况。由于技术进步、消费者价值观的变化和资源可用性，乳制品系统在不断发展；对NCD的频繁审视有助于早期发现影响现有评估准确性的行业趋势变化，同时也凸显了对与乳制品行业一样动态变化的改进工具的需求。目前正在开展全行业的努力，以开发一个畜群水平的可持续性指标平台，该平台将支持乳制品生产商在关键健康和生产领域进行养殖并跟踪其进展。乳制品行业团体之间的这种竞争前合作确保了准确数据的可靠流动，以便我们能够继续开发工具，在当前和未来支持乳制品生产商。
