What are important traits of dairy cattle?

Answer 1

There is no "best" breed of dairy cattle. They all have their characteristics that are better than other breeds and other characteristics that are worse than other breeds. However, the most commonly found breed around the world is the Holstein-Freisian, which is considered one of the "best" milking breeds in terms of high milk production. But they cannot outdo the Jerseys in terms of milk fat content.

Answer 2

Unfortunately with cattle you cannot have your cake and eat it too. In other words, you can't select for high quality milk or high milk yield without compromising meat quality. You have to select for either milk or meat if you want animals that are efficient milk producers or efficient meat producers, respectively. A prime example is the difference in characteristics between Holstein and Charolais cattle. Holsteins produce the highest quality and quantity of milk, but are poor quality meat producers. Charolais are on the opposite spectrum: great at putting muscle mass on their frames and producing good quality meat (lean and tender), but poor milk producers.

However that's not to say that you can't have both parties, you just have to compensate for losses at either ends of the scale. Dual purpose cattle such as Dexter or Red Poll are raised for both their milk and their meat. Are they the highest milk producers or best beef producers? No. These breeds do not have a high milk yield nor do they have a high meat yield (though the part about quality can be argued that they do have some of the best quality meat, especially Red Poll) because we have to select for both traits (milk and meat) not one over the other.

But to answer your question, it really depends on how these animals are raised. I would say docility, calving ease, forage efficiency and mothering ability are other characteristics I would like my cattle to have should they have these qualities also.

Answer 3

The only important trait that is bred for in dairy cattle is milking ability. Nothing else matters.