Mixed Model Sire Evaluation with Dairy Cattle—Experience and Genetic Gain

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Mixed model dairy sire evaluations have been available to farmers since 1970. Major refinements in the single trait evaluation system include the incorporation of the relationship matrix among animals evaluated and expanding the model to include the sires of the mates. These refinements primarily increased the accuracy of evaluations of sires with few daughters. Multiple trait sire evaluation is discussed. The primary advantages include increased accuracy of evaluation on sires with few daughters and increased accuracy of evaluation on sires with missing observations on one or more traits. Transforming of data to reduce heterogeneous error variances is discussed. Accurate evaluation of sires and the heavy use of superior artificial insemination sires has resulted in a genetic gain of 31 kg of milk/yr from 1957 through 1982 in the Northeast dairy cattle population. Copyright © 1984. American Society of Animal Science. Copyright 1984 by American Society of Animal Science

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: