Economic index
What a cow will earn, not how much better she is
Weights in money per unit of trait, and the prices they are built from. The index is exactly as sound as the prices beneath it, so the prices are shown in full.
How it differs from an ordinary index
An ordinary index adds traits up with weights expressed as shares and answers the question of how much better than average an animal is. The answer is correct and cannot be turned into a decision: choosing between two heifers, a herd manager counts money, not shares.
The economic index adds up the same traits, but its weights are roubles per unit of trait. The sum comes out in roubles over the productive life of the animal, and it can be compared with the price of a heifer, the cost of treatment and the revenue from culling. That is what it means to put selection into the language decisions are made in.
The Association profile is not replaced by it: that profile answers for the breed, not for the money of one farm. The two sit side by side, and switching between them shows what is otherwise only argued about in words — that the best cow for the breed and the best cow for the accounts are different cows.
What one unit of a trait is worth
Roubles over the productive life of the animal. A minus sign does not mean a bad trait but an expense: a larger cow is paid for in feed, and calf mortality is paid for in calves.
| Trait | ₽ per unit | ₽ per typical step | Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fat | +1,320 ₽/kg | +14,903 ₽ | 11.29 kg |
| Protein | +1,170 ₽/kg | +8,108 ₽ | 6.93 kg |
| Udder health | +5,400 ₽/point | +5,398 ₽ | 1 point |
| Productive life | +3,170 ₽/months | +5,389 ₽ | 1.7 months |
| Fertility | +3,780 ₽/% | +5,179 ₽ | 1.37 % |
| Milk yield | +20 ₽/kg | +5,142 ₽ | 257.1 kg |
| Body weight composite | −5,400 ₽/point | −4,104 ₽ | 0.76 point |
| Calving ease | +2,590 ₽/point | +3,367 ₽ | 1.3 point |
| Calf mortality | −490 ₽/% | −794 ₽ | 1.62 % |
The typical step is the genetic standard deviation of the trait: that is how far animals differ from one another in an ordinary population. Weights are worth comparing by the second column rather than the first: kilograms of fat differ by tens, udder points by ones, and the price per unit says nothing about that.
Where the deviations themselves come from, what the base version means and where the source had no figure for a trait — the comparison base explained (in Russian).
Which prices it is built from
None of the figures above is invented: each one is computed from the prices below. These are assumptions about the Russian market of summer 2026, not the truth — a farm has figures of its own, and a profile is set up for them.
- Milk, base price37.2 ₽/kg
- April 2026, excluding VAT, at 3.4% fat and 3.0% protein
- Fat490 ₽/kg
- 45% of the milk price, divided by the mass of fat
- Protein435 ₽/kg
- 35% of the milk price, divided by the mass of protein
- Milk volume7.4 ₽/kg
- what is left of the price above fat and protein
- Replacement heifer200,000 ₽
- from breeding stock listings, 150–260 thousand
- Culled cow105,000 ₽
- 600 kg live weight at 175 ₽ per kg
- Clinical mastitis case20,000 ₽
- treatment, discarded milk, lost yield
- Difficult calving12,000 ₽
- veterinary help, extra days in the calving pen, lost production
- Calf at birth18,000 ₽
- averaged over sex
- One day open350 ₽
- milk not produced, feed, one semen dose
- Horizon2.7 lactations
- lactation traits are multiplied by this to get the lifetime figure
The udder and feet-and-legs composites are deliberately left without a price: their economics is already counted through udder health and longevity. A second price would be double counting.
Where this sits in the book
The profile stands beside the others in the breeding value index section: it is taken as a starting point and its prices are edited to fit the farm. The weights are recomputed at once, and it becomes visible how the price of milk moves an animal up or down the list.
The breeding value index section →