In Slovenia, there is a high proportion of permanent grassland, therefore cattle breeding is the most important part of livestock husbandry. Breeding of dairy cattle represents an important source of income for the breeders with milk production. That is why the number of Holstein cows constantly growing. In the thesis, we presented the actual breeders' goals for the Holstein breed in Slovenia and in some other European and North American countries. Though there are some specific differences among the breeding objectives in different countries, all of the breeding goals for this breed strive for improvement of the milk quality, longevity, fertility and animal health. All breeding organisations highlight the need to improve production results and to increase the health resistance of this particular breed - with a view to a sustainable and economically attractive farming, which would be positively recognized by the consumers, too. In the frame of this thesis, we wanted to determine the future breeding goals for this particular breed. For this reason, we made a shorter survey among 91 breeders of bull dams for this breed. We found out that in the future they want to give even more importance to longevity, fertility, animal health and conformation traits with emphasis on udder, feet and legs traits. In the future, they want to have functional animals that are more resistant to diseases and other stressful situations and which will be able to produce a large quantity of milk over a longer period at lower costs and without any special problems.
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