37 Genetic parameter estimates for days on feed, age at slaughter, and carcass traits in a multi-breed beef cattle population

Abstract

Abstract The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for days on feed (DOF), age at slaughter (AAS), and their relationships with carcass traits, including: marbling score (MARB), adjusted fat thickness (AFT), hot carcass weight (HCW), ribeye area (REA), and final live weight (FW). Data were from steers and heifers (n = 7,747) from the Germplasm Evaluation Program at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. All traits were analyzed with univariate and bivariate animal models using ASReml. Fixed effects fitted for all models included contemporary group (concatenation of birth year and season, sex, and experimental treatment group), breed fractions, and direct heterosis. Different endpoints were also investigated by fitting fixed linear covariates of AFT, HCW, REA, MARB, FW, and age (except AAS and DOF). For a given bivariate analyses, both traits were adjusted to the same endpoint. Univariate heritability estimates for AFT, AAS, DOF, FW, HCW, MARB, and REA ranged from 0.45–0.52, 0.52–0.59, 0.33–0.39, 0.34–0.55, 0.34–0.55, 0.54–0.55, and 0.50–0.56, respectively. Covariates of MARB and AFT led to the highest and lowest, respectively, heritability estimates for AAS and DOF. Depending on the endpoint, genetic correlations between AAS and AFT, FW, HCW, MARB, and REA ranged from 0.16 to 0.32, -0.08 to 0.33, 0.19 to 0.36, 0.14 to 0.20, and -0.06 to 0.13 (Table 1). Genetic correlations between DOF and AFT, MARB, and REA were negligible. Genetic correlations between DOF, FW, and HCW ranged from -0.10 to 0.29 and -0.37 to -0.17. Standard errors were less than 0.07 for all estimates. Phenotypic variability in DOF was low, and increased variability in AAS was due to differences in date of birth and thus weaning age. Results indicate DOF and AAS are moderately to highly heritable and generally lowly correlated with routine carcass traits. The USDA is an equal opportunity employer.