Breeding for improved protein fractions and free amino acids concentration in bovine milk.

Considerable resources are required to routinely measure detailed milk compositional traits. Hence, an insufficient volume of phenotypic data can hinder genetic progress in these traits within dairy cow breeding programmes. The objective of the present study was to quantify the opportunities for breeding for improved milk protein and free amino acid (FAA) composition by exploiting mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) predictions routinely recorded from milk samples.