3.10.1 Defining breeding goals at different levels

Breeding goal traits can be considered at different levels: 1) at individual animal level: what is the effect of the improvement of a trait on the profitability of an animal, 2) at (cross)breeding system level: what is the effect of selection in the grandparents on the profitability of a crossbred grandchild in producing the final product and 3) at farm level: what is the effect on income per farm and 4) at production chain level: what is the effect on production and processing level? On these different levels different effects might be generated. When a beef producer has a contract with a slaughter house to deliver annually a fixed amount of carcass, selection on daily gain will result in heavier carcasses and less carcasses sold by the producer per year. When subsequently he keeps less animals he might be confronted with a surplus of roughage at his farm that he cannot transfer into saleable carcasses. Then the profit from a higher daily gain is lower at farm level. When in a breeding program of dairy cattle selection for milk protein variants is practiced, it may lead to a higher cheese yield of milk. If a milk producer is not paid for the protein variants in the milk, the full profit of the selection for milk variants goes to the cheese factory.