The values you see in August will be a little lower, but any ranking changes will be the result of data from additional offspring. If your current practice is to select from the top-ranked animals, you can continue this practice and the base change will have no impact on your decisions. With the base change, fewer animals will meet those criteria, and mating options may be limited if those criteria are too strict. True Protein All genetic evaluations for protein will measure true protein beginning in August 2000. Most US farmers are now paid for the true protein they produce as opposed to the traditional crude protein measurements.
True protein is a better measure of the food value of milk.
USDA will convert the historical crude protein data to true protein, supplement it with the newly collected true protein data, and use the combined data for genetic evaluations. The resulting PTA s will be expressed on a true protein basis. The change to true protein will only have a small impact on PTA s. In fact, PTA s for protein percentage will be the same. All in all, the change to true protein will cause little re-ranking.