Interbull Routine Genetic Evaluation for Calving Traits
August 2013
Introduction
The latest routine international evaluation for calving traits took place as scheduled at the Interbull Centre. Data from fourteen (16) countries were
included in this evaluation.
International genetic evaluations for calving traits of bulls from Australia, Austria-Germany, Belgium, Canada, Denmark-Finland-Sweden,
France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America were computed.
Brown Swiss, Holstein, and Red Dairy Cattle breed data were included in this evaluation.
Changes in national procedures
Changes in the national genetic evaluation of calving traits are as
follows:
INTERBULL CHANGES COMPARED TO THE APRIL ROUTINE RUN
---------------------------------------------------------------
No changes in Interbull procedures
INTERBULL CHANGES COMPARED TO THE DECEMBER ROUTINE RUN:
No changes in Interbull procedures
Data and method of analysis
Data were national genetic evaluations of AI sampled bulls with at least
10 daughters or 10 EDC (for clinical mastitis and maternal calving traits at least
50 daughters or 50 EDC, and for direct calving traits at least 50 calvings or 50 EDC) in at
least 10 herds. Table 1 presents the amount of data included
in this Interbull evaluation for all breeds.
National proofs were first de-regressed within country and then analysed jointly with a linear model including the effects of evaluation country,
genetic group of bull and bull merit. Heritability estimates used in both the de-regression and international evaluation were as in each country's
national evaluation.
Table 2 presents the date of evaluation as supplied by each country
in the 01x-proof file.
Estimated genetic parameters and sire standard deviations are shown in APPENDIX I
and the corresponding number of common bulls are listed in APPENDIX
II.
Scientific literature
The international genetic evaluation procedure is based on international work described
in the following scientific publications:
International genetic evaluation computation:
Schaeffer. 1994. J. Dairy Sci. 77:2671-2678
Klei, 1998. Interbull Bulletin 17:3-7
Verification and Genetic trend validation:
Klei et al., 2002. Interbull Bulletin 29:178-182.
Boichard et al., 1995. J. Dairy Sci. 78:431-437
Weighting factors:
Fikse and Banos, 2001. J. Dairy Sci. 84:1759-1767
De-regression:
Sigurdsson and G. Banos. 1995. Acta Agric. Scand. 45:207-219
Jairath et al. 1998. J. Dairy Sci. Vol. 81:550-562
Genetic parameter estimation:
Klei and Weigel, 1998, Interbull Bulletin 17:8-14
Sullivan, 1999. Interbull Bulletin 22:146-148
Post-processing of estimated genetic correlations:
Mark et al., 2003, Interbull Bulletin 30:126-135
Jorjani et al., 2003. J. Dairy Sci. 86:677-679
https://wiki.interbull.org/public/rG%20procedure?action=print
Time edits
Weigel and Banos. 1997. J. Dairy Sci. 80:3425-3430
International reliability estimation
Harris and Johnson. 1998. Interbull Bulletin 17:31-36
Next routine international evaluation
The next routine evaluation of Interbull for production, conformation, udder health, longevity, calving, female fertility and workability traits is scheduled
for December 2013. Deadline for sending data to the Interbull Centre is Tuesday November 12, 2013, 17:00 CET; confidential distribution of results is targeted
for Thursday November 21, 2013, with earliest possible official release of results
on December 3, 2013. Please remark the three week turn around time.
OBS!!!! THIS SCHEDULE IS TO BE RATIFIED IN THE NANTES MEETING
Next test international evaluation
The next test run for production, conformation, udder health, longevity,
calving, female fertility and workability traits will take place in September 2013.
Countries planning to introduce changes in their national evaluation procedures and wishing to have them included in the routine Interbull evaluation, should
have their data examined in this test run. New data and validation results should be sent to the Interbull Centre no later than September 3, 2013, 17:00
CET.
PUBLICATION OF INTERBULL ROUTINE RUN
Results were distributed by the Interbull Centre to designated
representatives in each country. The international evaluation file comprised international proofs expressed on the
base and unit of each country included in the analysis. Such records readily provide more information on bull
performance in various countries, thereby minimising the need to resort to conversions.
At the same time, all recipients of Interbull results are expected to honour the agreed code of practice, decided by the Interbull Steering Committee,
and only publish international evaluations on their own country scale. Evaluations expressed on another country scale are confidential and may only
be used internally for research and review purposes.