File format 606 for the female fertility interbeef project performed by VIT

General rules for data preparation:

All information of Fields No. 1 – 15 belongs to the cow (cow = animal). In Field No. 15 the number of calvings (n) of the cow should be given, for which fertility performance is available. For each calving ( 1 – n) follows one section with information related to that calving (Fields No. 16 – 22). All known and plausible calvings of a cow should be sent.

Table: Content and format of fertility performance data for international evaluation of beef cattle

Field No.

Field description

Label

Format

Starting byte

Ending byte

Field length

Note

Example

1

Record type

RTYPE

Char

1

3

3

606

2

Trait

FCODE

Char

5

7

3

I

AFC

3

Breed of evaluation

EBREED

Char

9

11

3

II

LIM

4

Country sending information

RCOU

Char

13

15

3

III

FRA

5

Breed of cow/animal

ABREED

Char

17

19

3

II

LIM

6

Country of birth

AIDC

Char

20

22

3

III

FRA

7

Sex of animal

ASEX

Char

23

23

1

IV

F

8

ID code of cow/animal

AID

Char

24

35

12

V

008795005065

9

Twinning (cow/animal)

ATWI

Int

37

37

1

VI

1

10

Embryo transfer (cow/animal)

AET

Int

39

39

1

VII

0

11

Herd code of birth (cow/animal)

AHERID

Char

41

55

15

VIII

FRA000123456789

12

Culling date of cow/animal

ACD

YYYYMMDD

57

64

8

19850603 use UUUUUUUU for unknown and if the animal is still alive

13

Number of env effects to be fitted in them model

NENV

Int

66

67

2

IX

1

14

Actual effect to be included in the model

ENV

Char

69

71

3

IX

Herd-year

15

Number of calvings

NC

Int

73

74

2

XI

3

Loop for each calving: K = 76 +((i-1)*50), with i = 1,n For each calving (1-n) follows this section with information related to the specific calving (fields no 16-22). All known and plausible calvings of the cow should be sent

16

Calving number (i)

CN

Int

K+1

2

17

Calving date (i)

CD

YYYYMMDD

K+3

8

18

Sex of calf (i)

CSEX

Char

K+12

1

X

1

19

Twinning of calf (i)

CTWI

Char

K+13

1

IV

1

20

Embryo Transfer during parity (i)

CET

Int

K+14

1

VII

0

21

Herd code of calving (i)

CHERID

Char

K+16

15

VIII

FRA000123456789

22

Contemporary group (i)

CCG

Char

K+32

20

XI

333

Notes

I

Age at 1st calving (AFC), Calving interval (CAI), Number of calvings (NCA)

II

See reference section for Breed cods

III

See reference section for Country codes – ISO 3166 Alpha-3

IV

Sex: M for Male; F for female; U for unknown (In this file only females (F) are valid)

V

Identification Number in Interbull Format: Alpha-numeric codes only, Right justified, Left blanks being filled with ‘0’

VI

Relates to the animal is self, use 1 if the animal is "single birth" and 2 if the animals is "twin birth"

VII

0 = no ET; 1 = ET

VIII

Herd identification number corresponding to the herd included in the contemporary group. Format: 3 character country code + 12 digits.It not know fill in with UUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

IX

Number of effects in the model, currently only herd-years is considered as fixed effects, therefore the number of env.effects =1

X

Sex of calf/calves: Use: 1= if the calf is a male, 2=if the calf is a female, 3 = for twin birth and both calves are males, 4= for twin birht and both calves are females, 5=for twin birth and one calf is male and the other calf is female, 6=unknow

XI

Contemporary group of the respective calving, ie. CG of "calving 1" is different from CG of "calving 2"