Introduction

Labour is an important component for Irish dairy farmers. With increasing farm size, labour per cow has to decrease. Therefore, there is large interest in breeding dairy cows that require less labour per day.

Studies have been performed on defining/selecting clusters of traits that affect labour per cow most. These are the four different categories:

• Milking process
• Cow health and care
• Calving and calf care
• Fertility

Each category consists of a couple of traits that increase or decrease the labour (calculated as hours spent per cow per year). The aim of this questionnaire is twofold: Firstly, to investigate the importance of traits within each category: How much does each trait affect the labour per cow in your opinion? Secondly, to rank labour among several other indices: How economically important is labour compared to other commonly used breeding indices, like milk production, fertility etc.?

To be able to set up a Labour Index for breeding, we have to focus on traits that are affecting labour per cow but that are already recorded on the national scale as well. Only then, sires can have a breeding value for them, so you can select a sire for the performance on these traits.