Status as of: 2021-12-14

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEM FOR PRODUCTION TRAITS

Country (or countries)	Australia	
Main trait group1	Production	
Breed(s)	Illawarra, Ayrshire, Dairy Shorthorn, and Australian Red Breeds	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Milk(l), fat and protein (kg)
Use is made of test day information up to 305 days for the first three lactations, both complete and in progress	
Method of measuring and collecting data		
Time period for data inclusion	Since 1985	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	All	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Age at calving > 18 months.  	
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	N/A	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Multi-trait multi-lactation random regression test-day model.	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd-test-days, year-seasons (2 seasons), age groups 2,3,4,5 and 5 years, heterosis,  fixed regression on days in milk using Legendre polynomials of order 4	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	In progress. The method is described in: J.Anim. Breed. Genet. 125 (2008) 147-159 and implemented in Mix99 software.
	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Year of birth, overseas v local and male v female	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation		
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	h2:milk = 0.45; h2:fat = 0.5; h2:protein = 0.39	
System validation	Range checks, time trend method 3	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula on PART 2	Breeding value in units of measurement	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Fixed, average BV of cows born in 2009 – 2013.
In February 2021	
Calculation of reliability		
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	60% reliability with daughters in 10 herds.	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	BPI = 1.79 x Fat ABV + 6.92 x Protein ABV – 0.048 x Milk ABV + 3.9 x Survival function ABV + 1.2 x Milking Speed ABV + 2.0 X Temperament ABV -1.07 X Cell Count ABV 0 x Liveweight ABV + 6.94 x Daughter Fertility ABV + 2.289 x MamSysCoeff ABV + 0.817 x UdDepCoeff ABV + 2.258 x OTCoeff ABV + 1.277 x PinSetCoeff ABV + 0.14875 x FeedEffCoeff ABV	
Anticipated changes in the near future	N/A	
Key reference on methodology applied	Konstantinov, K.V. Implementation of Multiple traits Multi Lactation Random Regression Test Day Model for Production Traits in Australia; Interbull Bulletin (49), Orlando, Florida, 2015.
	
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, 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 extension or 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/framesida-general.htm) 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 PR

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

Country (or countries):		
Main trait group:	Production	
Breed(s):	RDC	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk yield:
	0.45	406802	No standardisation	
Fat yield:
	0.5	559	No standardisation	
Protein yield:
	0.39	278	No standardisation	
a	If lactations, or part of lactations, are treated as separate traits, provide heritability estimates and genetic variances separately for each lactation, as well as for all lactations pooled, i.e. for the trait submitted to Interbull.
b	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.