Genetic Relationship of Productive Life, Production and Type Traits of Korean Holsteins at Early Lactations.

Nidarshani Wasana,Chanhyuk Park,Byungho Park,Changhee Do,Subong Park,Sidong Kim,Gwanghyun Cho,Jaegwan Choi

doi:10.5713/ajas.15.0034

Nidarshani Wasana, Chanhyuk Park + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.5713/ajas.15.0034

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Abstract

The present study was performed to study the genetic relationship of productive life with production and type traits of Korean Holsteins at first three lactations. The data for the analysis from 56,054, 28,997, and 11,816 animals of first, second and third parity cows which were born from 2006 to 2011 were collected by Dairy Cattle Improvement Center, National Agricultural Co-operative Federation. Milk, protein and fat yields adjusted for 305 days and average somatic cell score considered as production traits and analyzed type traits were stature, strength, body depth, dairy form, rump angle, rump width, rear leg side view, foot angle, front attachment placement, rear attachment height, rear attachment width, udder cleft, udder depth, front teat placement and front teat length. A multi trait genetic analysis was performed using Wombat program with restricted maximum likelihood animal model composed of fixed effect of birth year, farm and the random effect of animal and random residual effect according to the traits. Heritability estimates of productive life were between 0.06 and 0.13. Genetic and phenotypic correlations between production and productive life traits ranged from 0.35 to 0.04 for milk, 0.16 to 0.05 for protein and 0.18 to 0.02 f 15-0034 (2nd) 150520 or fat. Somatic cells score showed a negative genetic and phenotypic correlation with productive life and also udder type traits, indicating that the selection for higher udder traits will likely to improve resistance to mastitis and persistence in the herd. Among all dairy form type traits, udder characters such as udder cleft showed a significant relationship with productive life. However, a specific change of heritabilities or correlations were not observed with the change of parity. Moreover, further studies are needed to further confirm the significance of the above traits and the effect of parity on above relationships in order to minimize both voluntary and involuntary culling rates while improving herd health and maintaining high yielding dairy cows.

Highlights

Genetic parameter estimation of economically important traits in dairy cows is essential for early prediction of selection response for achieving goals in efficient breeding programs
We found that a negative correlation of somatic cells score (SCS) with productive life trait and the value of negative correlation increased with
Our study resulted in negative genetic correlations with body size traits suggesting that to obtain longer lasting cows for and in the future selection should focus on more moderately sized animals

Summary

Introduction

Genetic parameter estimation of economically important traits in dairy cows is essential for early prediction of selection response for achieving goals in efficient breeding programs. Dairy cow production and productive life are most important traits responsible for the profitability of dairy industry. Milk yield is a very important part of the profitability. Submitted Jan. 12, 2015; Revised Mar. 24, 2015; Accepted Apr. 10, 2015 equation (Luis et al, 2013). High producing herds were profitable in good and poor economies irrespective of herd size. Milk pricing in the world focuses on a multiple component pricing system. In addition to being indicators of cow health and nutrition, milk component levels have taken on new importance in herd management and directly impact farm income

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