AI bulls in the Nordic joint dairy breeding program are selected primarily on Nordic Total Merit Index (NTM). Traits in the NTM are weighted based on their economic importance. Individual farmers’ preferences may differ from NTM weighting. The aims of this study were to investigate (1) the variation in the usage of AI bulls among Finnish dairy herds and its economic implications, and (2) the association of the variation with herd characteristics. Data consisted of 104,670 insemination records of 1,279 pure Ayrshire (AY) herds and 544 pure Holstein (HOL) herds within one year (2015), estimated breeding values (EBV) of the used AI bulls (176 AY and 232 HOL) and farm characteristics. Herds’ breeding profile was defined as the mean of the EBVs of the AI bulls used in the herd, weighted by the number of inseminations per bull. Herds were grouped according to the breeding profile using cluster analysis. Analysis was done separately for the breeds. The economic implications of breeding choices in each cluster were estimated, based on the traits´ genetic standard deviation and economic value in Finland. The result was compared with the expected response to the NTM based selection. Four herd clusters in both breeds were identified. Clusters were named according to the main focus in the breeding choices; Pure AY herds: (1) Yield and functionality (452 herds), (2) Longevity, fertility and health (393), (3) All-rounders (377), (4) Conformation (57); Pure HOL herds: (1) Longevity, health and fertility (280), (2) Production (169), (3) Yield, conformation and longevity (48), (4) Conformation (47). In the first 3 clusters of both breeds their average herd breeding profiles were close to the NTM based selection indicating that the vast majority of farmers followed NTM in their breeding decisions. In the Conformation clusters, the traits other than conformation were almost neglected, which expectedly lead to poorer economic result than the NTM based selection. The Conformation focused herds were in a minority, were large herds and had recently made investments.