Cow Livability
In 2016 the trait Cow Livability (Liv) was introduced and in 2017 it was added in the Net Merit $ formula. Livability predicts a cow’s ability to remain alive in the milking herd. It has a close correlation with Productive Live (PL), actually it is one of the traits that dertermines PL. Difference between PL and Liv is that PL focuses on whether a cow stays productive and creates income.
Cows that die on a farm are a great expense. PTA Liv is expressed as the percentage of daughters that do not end in death or on-farm euthansia. Let’s look at the following example:
| Sire A | Sire Sergio | |
| Livabiliyty | -1,0 | +4,4 |
| Herd average % remaining alive | 80% | 80% |
| Daughters % remaining alive | 79,0% | 84,4% |
In this example 84,4% of the daughters of Sergio are expected to leave the farm alive. In contrast with the 79% for daughters of Sire A.
Heritability of Liv is relatively low, but the reliability is high. Reason is that termination codes of cows have been recorded for several decades. Liv can be used as a breeding tool to improve health and longevity of the next generation.
Find below the top-10 ranking of AI Total bulls for Livability.
| Naab code | Name Sire | Liv | GTPI | NM$ | PTAM | PTA %F | PTA %P | PTAT | SCS | SCE | PL | DPR |
| 515HO00308 | Sergio | 4,4 | +2666 | +813 | +1644 | -0,02 | +0,04 | +1,76 | 2,83 | 5,7 | +7,4 | +2,7 |
| 515HO00254 | Apple Pie Red | 4,3 | +2301 | +403 | -502 | +0,10 | +0,08 | +1,78 | 2,51 | 8,4 | +5,4 | +5,1 |
| 515HO00336 | Blues Red | 3,7 | +2664 | +849 | +2129 | -0,02 | -0,01 | +1,39 | 2,78 | 6,1 | +7,1 | +2,6 |
| 515HO00312 | Aldo Red | 3,7 | +2398 | +592 | +722 | +0,09 | +0,03 | +1,70 | 2,82 | 7,9 | +5,7 | +3,2 |
| 307HO00014 | Rafter | 3,4 | +2743 | +891 | +1146 | +0,08 | +0,03 | +1,34 | 2,47 | 5,0 | +9,1 | +4,4 |
| 515HO00286 | Baltasar | 3,1 | +2624 | +708 | +1149 | +0,00 | +0,05 | +2,03 | 2,60 | 7,6 | +5,9 | +3,0 |
| 515HO00333 | Mainstay | 2,8 | +2653 | +787 | +1705 | +0,00 | +0,04 | +1,53 | 2,71 | 5,9 | +6,1 | +2,8 |
| 515HO00304 | Sir Duke | 2,7 | +2531 | +644 | +1079 | +0,05 | +0,00 | +2,37 | 2,74 | 7,5 | +5,0 | +3,6 |
| 515HO00285 | Baylaboy | 2,5 | +2626 | +712 | +1254 | +0,00 | +0,01 | +2,10 | 2,53 | 7,0 | +5,7 | +4,6 |
| 515HO00263 | Yuppi | 2,5 | +2592 | +827 | +1597 | +0,09 | +0,04 | +1,29 | 2,85 | 7,1 | +6,1 | +0,7 |
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