DAIRY HERD GENETIC DIFFERENCES FOR LACTATION PRODUCTION

Abstract

Cow estimated transmitting abilities (ETA) for milk yield and fat percent derived by best linear unbiased prediction methods were used to compute averages for each herd and year of calving subclass for herds enrolled on the Record of Production program (ROP). Means and variances of herd averages were tabulated according to province, herd size, and year of calving. The genetic trends in herd averages within herd size categories were positive for milk yields and negative for fat percent. The variance of herd averages has increased since 1958 within herd size categories, but has decreased over all herds due to a shift in size of herds since 1958. Herds with fewer than 20 cows represented 31.7% of the ROP herds in Canada in 1977 while in 1958 they represented 72.4%. However, in 1977 the larger herds did not show any genetic advantage over smaller herds. Ontario herds of size 20–9 cows showed greater variability in average ETA for milk and fat percent than herds in other provinces. Correlations among traits on a herd average basis have not changed in the last 10 yr even though herd averages have changed substantially over the same period. Herd genetic differences accounted for only 2.05% of herd phenotypic variance for milk yield and 12.74% for fat percent. Key words: Genetic differences, herds, cow indexing