Status as of: 01 February 2008 Form BEEF DESCRIPTION OF BEEF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEM Country (or countries) Denmark Trait name: Weaning weight Breed(s) Trait definition Method and frequency of measurement Who does the performance recording? Method of collecting data Which animals get recorded? Is birthday recorded? Is day of recording available? Are the data adjusted and/or selected? If yes please describe the methodology applied Time period for inclusion of records Criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records Is embryo transfer applied? How are ET animals been identified? 1 Is recipient mother ID recorded? How do you treat incomplete data? DATA COLLECTION Limousine 200 days weaning weight Animals are weighed on farm once when 140-260 days old. Weighing is done by scale. Farmer. Samples of herds also weighed by technician to evaluate registration done by farmers Records are registered on paper and typed in central typing station or reported electronically. Results go into central database All purebred animals Yes Yes No adjustments are used. In the genetic evaluation model age at weighing is a fixed effect Since 1989 Weight limits: 50-600 kgs Animals moved to another herd in the period from birth to weighting are deleted The technique is rarely applied. ET animals are identified with special code separate from ID. Recipient mother is recorded as well Deleted MODEL
Model used for genetic evaluation 2a Environmental effects 2b Use of genetic groups and relationships Genetic parameters in the model 3 Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model System validation Definition of genetic reference base Next base change Assessment of index quality (computation of reliability, connection) Expression of genetic evaluations MT-BLUP-AM. In the model birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, net slaughter weight (purebred and crossbred) and growth on performance test station are included. Some traits as both direct and maternal effects Herd x year (many,f) + Season of calving (7, F) + Age of dam x Parity (19, F) + Sex (4, F) + Twin (2, F) + Age at weighing x sex (38, F) + PE DAM (many, R) + Cow (R) + Calf (R) F = Fixed effect, R = Random effect Relationship matrix with genetic groups. Fore genetic groups (Danish old, Danish new, French, and Other countries) No Correlation between EBV in subsequent evaluations and changes for individual animals in subsequent evaluations in relation to expected changes Rolling base. All animals born 3-7 years before publication year. In 2008 the base is animals born from 1 st of January 2001 to 1 st of January 2006. Next base change will be in 1 st of January 2009. No check on connection is done Reliability is calculated by a approximate selection index methodology (counting number of records on individual, progeny, sire, dam and their progeny PUBLICATION Estimated Breeding Values (EBV) for direct genetic effect is a part of the sub index for growth potential at weaning (called VÆKST). The Estimated Breeding Values (EBV) for maternal genetic effect is a part of the sub index for milking ability (called MÆLK). EBV's for MÆLK and VÆKST are standardized in comparison with the reference base: Average of 100 within genetic reference base. SD of 10 within subgroup of genetic reference base. The subgroup is animals with high reliability on EBV. The EBV's for MÆLK and VÆKST are used to construct a total merit index (S-indeks). Criteria per official publication of evaluations Number of evaluations / MÆLK: reliability on MÆLK or S-indeks above 10% VÆKST: reliability on VÆKST or S-indeks above 10% 4 evaluation per year
publications per year Anticipated changes in the near future Key reference on methodology applied Key organization: Contact person, address, phone, fax, e-mail, website None www.lr.dk/kvaeg/diverse/principles.pdf Dansk Kvæg Udkærsvej 15 8200 Aarhus N Anders Fogh Tel. 87405337 Mail adf@landscentret.dk 1) Use Appendix II BEEF for sample ID of ET animals 2a) Use abbreviation listed in the attached list of abbreviation to define the type of model. 2b) Use abbreviation for most common effects as listed in the attached list of abbreviation indicating, also, if the effect is treated as random (R) or fixed (F). 3) Use Appendix I BEEF for heritability/genetic variance estimates.
Form BEEF Appendix I BEEF Parameters used in genetic evaluation Country: Denmark Main trait group: Adjusted weaning weight Breed: Limousine Trait (1) 2 2 Definition h d h m r g(d,m) c 2 σ 2 p 200 dw 200 days unadjusted weaning weight 0,27 0,12-0,16 0,09 996 h 2 d : direct heritability; h 2 m : maternal heritability; r g(d,m) : genetic correlation between direct and maternal effects; c 2 : repeatability of (maternal) permanent environmental effects; σ 2 P : phenotypic variance. 1) If you have more than one trait (e.g. a.w.w. at 120d and 210d) provide the correlations between traits.
Form BEEF Appendix II BEEF Sample of ET animal IDs Country: Main trait group: Breed: ET animal ID