Status as of: 20190409

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Australia	
Main trait group1	Longevity	
Breed(s)	Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Ayrshire, Illawarra, Australian Red Breed	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Probability of surviving from one year to the next.  Units are: 1 if cow survives an extra year, 0 otherwise.  Trait is considered as a repeatable trait.  Combined longevity is based on an index of daughter longevity and predictors.	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Starting from the date of first calving, the cow’s presence in the herd is checked 1, 2, …, 7 years later.	
Time period for data inclusion	Since 1975	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Up to 7 years after first calving.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Records are included if the cow has had the opportunity to be culled by an anniversary date.  The cow has had an opportunity if there is data present for the herd 6 months after the anniversary date.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	Not applicable	
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No pre-adjustments.  	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Animal model is applied to the data extracted above.	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd-year-season is a fixed effect with 2 seasons per year.  Animals are compared only against those born in the same year.	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No adjustment of heterogeneous variance.	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Unknown parents in pedigrees are assigned to groups according to breed and year of birth.  Animal model is used.	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	Trait supplied to Interbull contains only Australian data.  The published trait contains AUS and foreign information.	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	Use Appendix GE for heritability/genetic variance estimates; for multiple-trait genetic evaluations, provide genetic correlation estimates between traits separately.
Use also appendices PR, CO, BCO, SM, as applicable, if you participate in the international genetic evaluations of Interbull	
System validation		
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	(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%.

February 2021	
Calculation of reliability	n / (n + (4 –h2) / h2) where n is number of effective daughters.  This is calculated in a similar manner to that for yield, allowing repeated records.	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Bull should have at least 25% reliability and a publishable BV for yield.	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3 per year.  February, May and August.	
Use in total merit index4	After the evaluation for direct survival, an index is computed combining direct survival with a function of 4 predictor traits (0.50 * likability + 1.79 * overall conformation + 3.07 * udder depth + 2..2 * pin set).  The index is adjusted according to the reliability direct survival and the average reliability of the predictors.	
Anticipated changes in the near future	No changes are planned in the near future.	
Key reference on methodology applied	Madgwick, PA and Goddard, ME, 1989.  Genetic and phenotypic parameters of longevity in Australian dairy cattle.  Journal of Dairy Science 72:2624-2632	
Key organization: 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 (e.g. direct longevity, combined 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).

Parameters used in genetic evaluation

Country (or countries):	Australia	
Main trait group:	Longevity	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire type, Guernsey	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Direct Longevity	Probability of surviving from one year to the next expressed as a deviation in percentage units	X	0.025	4.0	Not standardised	
Combined Longevity	Probability of surviving from one year to the next expressed as a deviation in percentage units	X	0.025	2.0	Not standardised	

						

						

						

						
a	Indicate, with X, traits that are submitted to Interbull for international genetic evaluations.
b	If repeated records are treated as separate traits, provide heritability estimates and genetic variances separately for each trait, as well as for all traits pooled, i.e. for the trait submitted to Interbull.
c	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.

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

Country (or countries):	Australia	
Main trait group:	Longevity	
Breed(s):	Holstein, Jersey Ayrshire type, Guernsey	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct longevity:
	0.025	4.0	Not standardised	
Combined longevity:
	0.025	2.0	Not standardised	
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.