Building Sustainability into Every Generation
Sustainability has become impossible to ignore in agriculture. From carbon calculators to environmental audits, farmers face mounting pressure to demonstrate their green credentials while maintaining profitability.
Yet amidst the noise around new technologies and management practices, one fundamental truth often gets overlooked: genetics offers a truly enduring sustainability solution. Unlike interventions that require ongoing investment, genetic improvement is cumulative, self-reinforcing and remarkably cost-effective.
Understanding the Genetic Advantage
The power of genetics lies in its compounding nature. When a farmer selects a bull with superior feed efficiency or health traits, the benefits don't stop with that breeding decision. Every daughter inherits those advantages, every granddaughter builds upon them, and the entire herd trajectory shifts upward without further intervention.
This sets genetics apart from almost every other farm investment. A new slurry system requires capital and maintenance. A revised diet needs constant monitoring. Management practices depend on labour and consistency. All have value, but none deliver improvements that automatically strengthen with each passing generation.
For an industry under pressure to demonstrate environmental progress whilst controlling costs, this matters enormously. Genetic gain doesn't depreciate, doesn't need replacing and doesn't stop working when input prices spike or regulations change.
"What we've learnt is that genetic progress is the only improvement that gets stronger every generation without farmers having to reinvest. That permanence is incredibly powerful," says Andrew Holliday, Genetics Product Manager at Cogent.
Feed Efficiency – The Double Dividend
Feed represents both the largest cost on most dairy farms and a significant portion of the sector's environmental footprint. Improving how efficiently cows convert feed into milk addresses both challenges simultaneously.
The climate mathematics are straightforward. When a cow produces more milk per kilogram of feed, methane emissions per litre decline proportionally. This isn't about asking farmers to produce less, it's about producing more effectively from finite resources.
"We've spent years investing in data, partnerships and genomic insights to identify feed efficiency genetics, long before sustainability became an industry buzzword," explains Holliday. "By selecting for cows that produce more milk from the same, or even fewer, inputs, farmers gain a long-term advantage: lower feed bills and reduced pressure on land, water and other resources."
Longevity – The Overlooked Sustainability Metric
If sustainability means using fewer resources to produce the same output, then cow longevity may be one of the most undervalued metrics in modern dairying. A cow that remains healthy and productive for longer spreads her rearing costs, environmental footprint and lifetime emissions across far more litres of milk.
Lameness, mastitis, fertility problems and metabolic disorders cut careers short, forcing farmers into constant replacement cycles that drain resources and inflate carbon footprints. Breeding for health traits directly addresses this challenge. Cows bred for robustness, simply cope better with the inevitable stresses of modern milk production.
"Health and longevity have always been at the core of our breeding philosophy," says Holliday. "Every avoided case of mastitis, every extra lactation – these aren't just welfare wins, they're environmental and economic wins too. A cow that lasts six lactations instead of three has half the carbon footprint per litre."
Longer-lasting cows require fewer replacements, reduce veterinary costs, minimise labour demands and demonstrate measurably lower environmental impact per litre produced.
Sexed Semen – Precision in Action
The rapid adoption of sexed semen technology demonstrates how genetics can transform sustainability outcomes without compromising productivity. By producing more heifer calves from superior females whilst directing beef semen to lower-value animals, farmers gain unprecedented control over herd development and calf management.
The sustainability implications extend beyond avoiding unwanted dairy bull calves. Sexed semen accelerates genetic progress by allowing faster turnover of inferior genetics and more intensive use of elite females. Health traits, feed efficiency and productivity improvements flow through herds more rapidly than traditional breeding allowed.
For an industry facing increasing scrutiny over calf welfare and value, sexed semen offers a practical tool that aligns breeding decisions with both business objectives and social expectations.
The Long Game
British dairy farming faces a challenging decade ahead. Climate commitments will tighten, input costs will likely remain volatile, and public expectations around environmental performance will continue rising. Farmers need solutions that work across multiple scenarios, regardless of what future policy or market conditions emerge.
Genetics offers unusual flexibility in this context. A herd bred for efficiency and resilience performs better regardless of market conditions. This isn't about choosing genetics over other sustainability tools. Diet, housing, manure management and grazing practices all contribute. But genetics is a tool that improves automatically over time and requires no ongoing investment to maintain progress.
For farmers serious about building sustainable businesses that can adapt to whatever comes next, genetics isn't just part of the answer. It may be the most powerful part.