Pro$: Canada’s Profit-Based Genetic Selection Index – April 2025 Update

Annual Update to Pro$

Pro$ is the Canadian economic selection index that maximizes genetic response for cow lifetime profitability. Selection for Pro$ will lead to a herd that excels for production, is long-lasting with good functional conformation, and has a greater resistance to various diseases. If your herd generates essentially all its revenue from the sale of milk and its components, Pro$ is designed to be your primary genetic selection index tool.

The formula details for Pro$ are not published to focus on the expected response per trait rather than the list of traits included in the formula and their relative weight.  As a measure of expected response rates, the correlation of Pro$ with proofs for the key traits in each breed are shown below.

Pro$ is expressed as an animal’s average daughter profit deviated from the national average daughter profit. With each Pro$ update and new economic values, daughter profits will change to some extent, resulting in changes in published Pro$ values. Coupled with the April 2025 genetic base update, the top 100 proven Pro$ sires from December see their Pro$ change by an average of +54, -37, and +30 for Ayrshire, Holstein, and Jersey, respectively.

The table below provides some key statistics related to the cows with actual profit data used to develop the Pro$ formula in each breed for 2025. Changes in the pricing of milk and its components affect each cow’s revenue and other economic values, including feed and maintenance costs, affect expenses for lactating and dry cows as well as the rearing costs to first calving.  To reflect a measure of lifetime profitability, the Pro$ calculations consider each cow’s revenue and expenses accumulated to 6 years of age or disposal if removed from the herd earlier.

Breed

Birth Years

Number of Cows

Average Up to 6 Years of Age or Disposal

Age at First Calving (d)

Rearing Cost

(to 1st calving)

Total Milk (kg)

Total Fat (kg)

Total Protein (kg)

Ayrshire

2008-18

38,179

819

$3,834

18,510

775

633

Holstein

2012-18

1,009,898

766

$4,063

25,590

1,027

845

Jersey

2008-18

53,447

774

$3,578

17,357

881

669

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By Allison Fleming, Ph. D.
Allison enjoys sharing her knowledge of the dairy cattle genetic improvement landscape with all audiences from the technical to the end-user for the successful understanding and application of genetic selection tools.