Status as of: 2019-04-09

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Australia	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Calving traits	
Breed(s)	Holstein	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	1. Direct Calving Ease.  Calving difficulty – 4 categories , Calf size – 5 categories 2. Direct Still Birth (direct calving ease is also submitted to Interbull as Direct Still Birth).	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Calving difficulty – 4 categories  Normal (1) to difficulty (4)
Calf size – 5 categories Tiny to Huge (coded 30, 35, 40,45, 50) 	
Time period for data inclusion	Calvings since 1980	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Parity 2 onwards	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Single births only, Age at calving > 18 months	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	All animals analysed together 	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 		
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Multi-trait animal model	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	•	Fixed effects 
–	Herd-Year-Season-Age of calving, sex of calf, month of calving, heifer versus cows, breed of cow, breed of bull 
•	Random effects 
–	calf (direct) and permanent environmental effect of cow to account for repeated records  
	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No adjustments	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Year of birth, foreign and local, male and female	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation		
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See Appendix CA 	
System validation	Means, SD and changes between runs.  Time trend	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	No standardization. 
(eval-base), where base= mean eval of base animals, where eval = EBV on scale of measurements 	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	5-years stepwise. AI bulls born between 2002 - 2006 with reliability > 50%.
2021	
Calculation of reliability	Mix99 software	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	60 % reliability with calvings in at least 10 Australian herds	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3 per year (February, May and August)	
Use in total merit index4	No
	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied		
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	DataGene Limited
Mob: +61 438 761 822 AgriBio Road Bundoora MELBOURNE  VIC  3083 
Email: mshaffer@datagene.com.au
Web site:  www.datagene.com.au	
1) Either: Production (e.g. milk, fat, protein), Conformation, Health (e.g. mastitis resistance, milk somatic cell, resistance to diseases other than mastitis), Longevity, Calving (e.g. stillbirth, calving ease), Female fertility (e.g. non-return rate, interval between reproductive events, number of AI’s, heat strength), Workability (e.g. milking speed, temperament), Beef production, Efficiency (e.g. body weight, energy balance, body conditioning score), or Other traits.
2) Indicate frequencies per category if the trait is categorical and specify transformation of data if practiced.
3) Use abbreviations for most common effects (see document with list of abbreviations at http://www-interbull.slu.se/service_documentation/General/list_of_abbreviations.rtf) and indicate random (R) or fixed (F).
4) Please give economic weights and indicate how they are expressed (preferably in genetic standard deviation units).

 Form GE	Appendix CA

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for calving traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	Australia	
Main trait group:	Calving Traits	
Breed(s):	Holstein	

Trait	h2	genetic
correlation	official proof
standardisation formulaa	

Direct calving ease:      
Direct calving size:
	
0.07                    0.17       	
0.76	
Not standardised	
Maternal calving ease:
	N/A			

Direct stillbirth: (direct calving ease is supplied for this trait)
				
Maternal stillbirth:
	N/A			
a	Expressed as follows:
StandEval=((eval-a)/b)*c+d where a=mean of the base adjustment, b=standard deviation of the base, c=standard deviation of expression (include sign if scale is reversed), and d=base of expression.