Studies were conducted to determine the relationship between the method of breeding, the reproductive qualities of heifers and their subsequent milk productivity in the conditions of enterprises of the Omsk region. It was found that the best characteristics of reproductive qualities are heifers with an inbreeding coefficient of up to 6.25% or with moderate inbreeding and inseminated from 13 to 18 months of age. With increasing homozygosity of organisms, the level of milk productivity decreases.

Estimation of servicing bulls according to the offspring quality is one of the main items in selection process, which allows determining the strategy of herd improving in breeding, productive and conformation features. The research has been carried out in the Ayrshire cattle herd in agricultural production cooperative Mayskiy Plemzavod, the Vologda District, the Vologda Region.

The causes of the disposal of the animals and the main milk productivity indices of cows having different genotypes depending on the method of housing and technology of milking have been analyzed. For all the evaluated periods the animals which were milked with a robotic system in the free stall barn surpassed the cows which were kept on a leash and milked into the pipeline with the help of milking machines. Along with this, in the cows kept in the free stall barn the limb diseases caused culling more often than in other groups of animals under study.

The article presents data of ethological monitoring of Ayrshire first lactation cows, which are kept in tied confinement during summer. Breeding cows according to the ethological individuality is accompanied by an increase of milk productivity indicators. Animals with high feeding activity have a 967 kg increase per lactation, compared with animals with low feeding activity. The productivity of active and ultra active cows increases by 15.6 -17,2 %, while the coefficient of lactation stability increases by 5 - 9 %, unlike the productivity of infrapassive animals.