Problems and issues in forecasting the genetic breeding value of agricultural animals

Abstract

Methods for forecasting genetic value in cattle breeding are widely recognized in countries with developed cattle breeding. They are used and improved in continuous evolution by genetic breeders and statisticians. The unbiased linear estimation method (BLUP/BLUE) is very flexible because it has many alternatives tailored to different breeding objectives, animal species, production conditions, and calculation methods. Today it is relevant to the search for new, faster, and more economical algorithms for inverting dominant and additive kinship relationships between individuals using additive kinship matrices. For a new search, it is necessary to select (create) a suitable selection model to solve the problem of cow culling, the non-random influence of sires. Further, it is essential to relate this to the fixed factors of the animal’s life cycle HYS (herd-year-season, herd-year-season) and the preferred production environment factors. The purpose of this paper is to address several issues related to the problems of animal breeding. First, an overview of a historically powerful method for assessing the genetic value of cattle (and other species by analogy) based on multifactorial regression models is presented, and simple examples of selection using it are given. Over the past decade, many new methodological techniques, programs, databases, patents, and review articles have been published in this area. By the requirements of national economic development, the material presented can serve as a guide for the study of new, modern methods of assessing the value of animals and the formation of new breeding indices.