Status as of: 2021-02-04

Form GE
DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	BELGIUM (Walloon Region)	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Calving Traits	
Breed(s)	Red and Black Holstein	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Calving ease scores range from 1 to 4
1 Caesarean /fetonomy
2 Hard pull
3 Easy pull
4 Normal	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Scored by breeders on voluntary basis	
Time period for data inclusion	All available data since 2000	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Heifer (1st calving) and cows (from 2nd to 5th calvings included)	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Valid birth date
Age checks for all parities
Multiple births, calving interval < 270 days; calves with unknown dam
 and herds with low variability in calving scores are skipped	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	N/A	
Sire categories	All	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No pre-adjustments	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	AM-ST – no covariance between direct and maternal effects	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd (F)
Herd – Year of calving (R)
Season (F)
Age at current calving (10 classes of age in months) by sex of calf, by group of calving (2 groups: 1st calving and 2nd -5th  calvings) (F)
Maternal permanent environment (R)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No Adjustment	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	All known relationships of cows and sires are considered. 
No genetic groups	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No blending	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	Heritability for direct effect : 0.08
Heritability for maternal effect : 0.02	
System validation	Trend validations	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Expressed in expected differences in percentage of “normal” calving.
Transformed to RBV (average 100, SD 10)	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	SD for all cows with calving ease scores born in 2015 used to standardize to 10 points
In 2025 cows born in 2020	
Calculation of reliability	Based on Interbull EDC computations	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	First sire need to have production evaluation
REL ≥ 30% for :
•	young sires
•	imported sires if only domestic results
•	imported sires with INTERBULL results	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	V€G= V€L + V€F + V€T
V€G= V€L + V€F + V€T
V€L= -0.06 EBVmilk + 3.62 EBVfat + 4.00 EBVprot
V€F 1.79 * RBVSCS + 1.79 RBVlong + 1.79 * RBVfert + 0.89 * RBVCEd + 0.89 * RBVCEm 
-	all functional traits expressed on a 10-unit scale, means of 100 subtracted
-	coefficients only approximate as computations done using selection index procedure estimating jointly V€F, combined RBVlong and combined RBVfert from EBVs for direct longevity, indirect longevity, SCS, indirect fertility and calving ease traits.
V€T= V€M + V€C + V€P
V€M= -4.11 RBVrear leg set + (2.06 RBVrear leg rear view) + (10.54 RBVbone quality) + (9.00 RBVfeet&legs)
V€C=-4.32 RBVoverall development + 11.11 RBVudder corrected final conformation
V€P= 8.64 RBVfore udder + 14.19 RBVrear udder height + 5.55 RBVudder support + 14.19 RBVudder depth + 2.47 RBVfront teat placement + (-11.11 RBVrear teat placement ) + (-5.55 RBVteat length)	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied	Vanderick S, Troch T, Gillon A, Glorieux G, Faux P, Gengler N. Genetic evaluation of calving ease for Walloon Holstein dairy cattle. Interbull Bull. 2013;(47):32–7. 
Vanderick S, Troch T, Gillon A, Glorieux G, Gengler N. Genetic parameters for direct and maternal calving ease in Walloon dairy cattle based on linear and threshold models. J Anim Breed Genet. 2014;131(6):513–21. 	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Organisation responsible for genetic evaluations:
Association Wallonne de l’Elevage Asbl (awé)
4, rue des Champs Elysées
B-5590 Ciney

Computing center
University of Liège (ULiège)
Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (GxABT)
Agriculture, Bio-engineering and Chemistry Department
Animal Science Unit
Numerical Genetics, Genomics and Modeling 
Passage des Déportés, 2
B-5030 Gembloux
Belgium

Phone: + 32/81/622206
Fax:     + 32/81/622115
E-mail : nicolas.gengler@ulg.ac.be  
WEB site for publication of sire breeding values:
              http://www.elinfo.be	
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):	BELGIUM (Walloon Region)	
Main trait group:	Calving Traits	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Red and Black Holstein	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Direct Calving Ease		X	0.077	0.028		
Maternal Calving Ease		X	0.023	0.009		
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 CA

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

Country (or countries):	BELGIUM (Walloon Region)	
Main trait group:	Calving Traits	
Breed(s):	Red and Black Holstein	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct calving ease:	0.077	0.389		
Maternal calving ease:	0.023	0.389		
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.