Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Switzerland	
Main trait group1 NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Calving traits	
Breed(s)	Brown Swiss	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2 Attach an appendix if needed	1) gestation length, days
2) calving ease, 3 categories (3=no help, 2=easy pull, 1=heavy pull & caesarean)
3) stillbirth (alive vs dead at or within 48 h after birth (binary))
4) birth weight of calf, kg
category traits multiplied by 100 for GE to get a percentage scale	
Method of measuring and collecting data	1) calculated from insemination and calving date
2) score reported by breeders at registration of calves via national animal traffic database
3) stillbirth or death within 48 h reported by breeders via national animal traffic database (since Mai 2005) or directly to herdbook (April 2003 to April 2005) 
4) estimated or weighted by breeder and reported at registration of calves via national animal traffic database	
Time period for data inclusion	calving records since July 2001	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	All parities if at least one of the first two calvings of a cow is included	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	birth weight: missing or 20 kg  birth weight  80 kg
gestation length: 255 days  gestation length  310 days
age at calving: parity 1: 17 months  age at calving  44 months
parity 2: 31 months  age at calving  60 months
parity 3: 44 months  age at calving  75 months
parity 4: 57 months  age at calving  168 months
calvings sired by beef breeds (crosses) are excluded
multiple births are excluded	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No extension of records	
Sire categories	90% of data from AI-sires; 10% from NS-sires; all data (AI first and second crop and NS) are used in the evaluations; 80 % of first calving cows are inseminated with young bulls; 60-80 bulls are tested each year.	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	none	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT-RP-BLUP-SM, correlated direct and maternal genetic effects (Sire-MGS)	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	HY (R): up to 3 consecutive years grouped for small herds
parity * age at calving (F)
year * season * economic zone (F)
sex of calf (F): male, female or unknown (often for stillbirth)
way of data collection (F): progeny test (yes/no) * directly to herd book vs. by way of animal traffic database	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	no	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Sire-MGS pedigree
genetic groups are assigned to unknown parents according to birth year, breed and selection pathway 	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
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, LO, CA, 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	RBV	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Rolling base, yearly updated in April, defined by bulls born 8 to 10 calendar years ago, e.g. April 2015: bulls born 2005 to 2007
April 2016	
Calculation of reliability	Reliabilities are approximated using program accf90 by I. Misztal and the “Sire only”-approach as described by Wiggans et al., 2008, J. Dairy Sci. 91:4058–4061	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	70 calvings (offspring of bull) for direct traits
70 calvings of bulls’ daughters for maternal traits
gestation length & birth weight (both direct & maternal) not published	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	No	
Anticipated changes in the near future	None	
Key reference on methodology applied		
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Evaluation Center:
Qualitas AG
Chamerstrasse 56, CH-6300 Zug, Switzerland
Phone: +41 (0)41 768 92 92
Fax: +41 (0)41 768 92 99
e-mail: zws@qualitasag,ch
web site: http://www.qualitasag.ch

EBV’s published by herdbook organisation:
Swiss Brown Cattle Breeders’ Federation Chamerstrasse 56, CH-6300 Zug, Switzerland
web site: http://www.braunvieh.ch	
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):	Switzerland	
Main trait group:	Calving traits	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Brown Swiss	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Direct gestation length	Days from successful insemination to calving		0.520	4.396		
Direct calving ease	Calving ease score multiplied by 100	X	0.031	23.7	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 4.868; d = 100	
Direct (inverse) stillbirth	Percentage of calves born alive	X	0.007	0.5634	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 0.7506; d = 100	
Direct birth weight	Weight of calf at birth, kg		0.113	0.8318		
Maternal gestation length	Days from successful insemination to calving		0.144	1.214		
Maternal calving ease	Calving ease score multiplied by 100	X	0.018	13.41	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 3.662; d = 100	
Maternal (inverse) stillbirth	Percentage of calves born alive	X	0.006	0.4295	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 0.6554; d = 100	
Maternal birth weight	Weight of calf at birth, kg		0.051	0.3727		

						

						

						
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):	Switzerland	
Main trait group:	Calving Traits	
Breed(s):	Brown Swiss	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct calving ease:
	0.031	23.7	a = 0; c =12; b = 4.868; d = 100	
Maternal calving ease:	0.018	13.41	a = 0; c =12; b = 3.662; d = 100	
Direct stillbirth:
	0.007	0.5634	a = 0; c =12; b = 0.7506; d = 100	
Maternal stillbirth:
	0.006	0.4295	a = 0; c =12; b = 0.6554; d = 100	
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.

Genetic correlations:
Direct gestation length	1.000	-0.496	-0.055	0.509	0.720	-0.136	0.103	0.200	
Direct calving ease	-0.496	1.000	-0.104	-0.952	-0.249	0.436	-0.060	-0.603	
Direct (inverse) stillbirth	-0.055	-0.104	1.000	0.200	0.048	0.043	0.608	0.245	
Direct birth weight	0.509	-0.952	0.200	1.000	0.253	-0.405	0.081	0.608	
Maternal gestation length	0.720	-0.249	0.048	0.253	1.000	-0.253	0.020	0.467	
Maternal calving ease	-0.136	0.436	0.043	-0.405	-0.253	1.000	0.505	-0.494	
Maternal (inverse) stillbirth	0.103	-0.060	0.608	0.081	0.020	0.505	1.000	0.025	
Maternal birth weight	0.200	-0.603	0.245	0.608	0.467	-0.494	0.025	1.000