Pro$ is not a Canadian version of the US Net Merit. Differences between Pro$ and NM$ are numerous, but key ones include:

  • Pro$ uses Canadian economic values (income & expenses) for the calculation of cow profitability
  • Pro$ is expressed in Canadian dollars, NM$ is expressed in US dollars • Pro$ takes Canada’s supply management system into account
  • Pro$ was developed by using regression analysis which considers genetic relationships among traits to determine the contribution that sire evaluations for each trait have in terms of predicting average daughter profit in an objective way. NM$, on the other hand, places relative weights on traits based on economic importance in the US
  • Pro$ includes various traits that are not evaluated in the US, which provides producers the opportunity to make genetic improvement for Mastitis Resistance, Body Condition Score, Milking Speed and Milking Temperament along with the other important functional traits like Herd Life and Daughter Fertility.

Both Pro$ and LPI are calculated and equally supported by CDN. In the US, NM$ is calculated by Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) and TPI is calculated by Holstein USA. Since the two US indexes are calculated and supported by different organizations with varying goals, the indexes can be considered as competing.