Status as of: 2021-12-14

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Australia	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Health (Milk Somatic Cell)	
Breed(s)	RDC	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	SCS = natural log of SCC	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Australian Milk recording canters collect Somatic Cell Count from herds test results 	
Time period for data inclusion	Approximately 1985	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	3 parities	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Cows with unknown sires are excluded	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	Minimum one test day record per lactation (trait)
Maximum ten test day records per lactation (trait)	
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No pre-adjustments	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Multi-trait Random Regression Animal Model (three lactations considered as three different traits)

SCS = HTD(F; 525,907-544939 levels) + year-season(F; 40-41 levels) + age at calving(F; 20 levels) + Legendre(DIM, 5) (FR) + Heterosis(FR, 6 levels) + Animal (R;  3,105,784 levels ) +
PE(R; 2,226,374 levels) + error	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd-test-day (F; 525,907-544939 levels )
Year-season(F; 40-41 levels)
Legendre polynomial (DIM, 5) (FR)
Heterosis(FR, 6 levels)
Permanent Environment(R; 2,226,374 levels)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	
No adjustments	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Totally of 77 groups were formed based on birth year, breed purity and country of origin.	
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	See appendix GE	
System validation	Method 3 was used for trend validation. The comparison was between breeding values from August 2002 and August 2006. See appendix TR_VAL
 	
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 (natural log of SCC)	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	5-years stepwise. AI bulls born between 2002 - 2006 with reliability > 50%.
2021	
Calculation of reliability	The method of Tier & Meyer was applied. J. Anim. Breed. Genet. 121
(2004), 77-89	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Bulls with 50% reliability and daughters in 15 herds (Holstein and Jersey). 30% reliability and 5 herds (other breeds)	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3 per year. February, May and August	
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	No changes are planned in the near future.	
Key reference on methodology applied	Konstantinov et al. (2009) Genetic evaluation of Australian dairy cattle for somatic cell scores using multi-trait random regression test-day model J. Anim. Breed. Genet.126(2009) 209–215	
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 GE

Parameters used in genetic evaluation

Country (or countries):	Australia	
Main trait group:	Health	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	RDC	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
			Trait I	Trait I		
Milk Somatic cell			0.082	0.0139		
			Trait II	Trait II		
			0.1150	0.0216		
			Trait III	Trait III		
			0.1102	0.0243		
	PE variance		Trait I	Trait I		
				0.3525		
			Trait II	Trait II		
				0.4246		
			Trait III	Trait III		
				0.5191		
	Residual variance		Trait I	Trait I		
				0.3047		
			Trait II	Trait II		
				0.3049		
			Trait III	Trait III		
				0.3389		
	Pooled parameters		0.1026	0.0199		
	PE variance			0.4321		
	Residual variance			0.3162		
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.

Form GE	Appendix PR

Form GE	Appendix TR_VAL

Estimates of regression coefficients and bias from Method 3 for different breeds and assumed 
Correlations obtained from August 2002 and August 2006

Breed	Number of bulls	Assumed correlation	Regression	Bias	
					
RDC	64	0.95	0.9773	0.0069	
					
RDC	64	0.96	0.9779	0.0077	
					
RDC	64	0.97	9784	0.0087	
					
RDC	64	0.98	0.9789	0.0098	
					
RDC	64	0.99	0.9796	0.1008