Dear colleagues,
The status of introduction of changes tested in the September test-run in the February routine evaluation is as follows:
Production:
- Netherlands, all. Data from Luxembough is included. This data comes from a different organisation than the data included in the German evaluation, so there should be no double counting. At the same time genetic parameters and reference base are updated.
- Italy, JER: update of the reference base.
- USA, all: Modification of the genetic evaluation to adjust for past inbreeding and expected future inbreeding, adjust for differing parity standard deviations, adjust to 36-month age instead of mature equivalent, and an update of the base mean and SD. (Details can be found here: http://www.aipl.arsusda.gov/reference/base2005.htm)
- Hungary, SIM & HOL: separate calculation of breeding values for production for Simmental and Holsteins. Adjustment of heterogeneous variance is introduced for both breeds.
- Spain, HOL: update of the reference base.
Conformation:
- Italy, JER: update of the reference base.
- Netherlands, all: definition of fixed effects is changed. The new model includes two new effects: classifier-visit and classifier-classification standard-time (was one effect of classifier-visit-classification standard). At the same time the reference base is updated. The Netherlands participates in the Jersey evaluation for the first time.
- Spain, HOL: update of the reference base, but not the change of scale that was tested in September.
- France detected a problem in the new evaluation for foot angle, that also affected in the September test-run and the November routine evaluation. Thus heel depth data of January 2004 will be included instead.
Udder health:
- USA, all: adjustment for past inbreeding and expected future inbreeding, for differing parity variance, increased heritability from .10 to .12, and a base mean of 3.00 for each breed. (Details can be found here: http://www.aipl.arsusda.gov/reference/base2005.htm)
- Netherlands, all. Data from Luxembough is included. This data comes from a different organisation than the data included in the German evaluation, so there should be no double counting.
- Hungary, HOL: separate calculation of breeding values for milk somatic cell for Simmental and Holsteins. Adjustment of heterogeneous variance is introduced for Holstein.
- Spain, HOL: update of the reference base.
Longevity:
- Australia, AYS, GUE, JER: first time
- Canada, AYS, GUE, BSW, JER: first time
- Denmark, AYS, JER: first time
- Germany+Austria, BSW: first time
- Finland, AYSs: first time
- Netherlands, bsw, hol, jer: first time
- Switzerland, BSW: first time
- Usa, AYS, GUE, BSW, JER: first time
Not: Switzerland, SIM; Sweden, AYS; Italy, BSW; Germany+Austria, SIM.
Calving:
- Australia, France, Sweden, Netherlands, USA, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Switzerland will participate in the first routine evaluation for calving traits, Holsteins. Not that only direct traits from US are included, due to an error in the data for maternal traits in the test-run of September.
Data from Germany+Austria and Canada will not be included.
The list has become long, not the least due to the introduction of longevity for breeds other than Holstein, and calving traits for the Holstein breed!
Regards,
Freddy
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