Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Switzerland	
Main trait group1 NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Production	
Breed(s)	Holstein, Simmental	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2 Attach an appendix if needed	Milk, fat, and protein lactation yields (305-day) in kg	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Until February 2004 all TD-records collected according to ICAR A4-method; now > 50% AT4	
Time period for data inclusion	Swissherdbook: Cows which first calved since January 1, 1987; Holstein association: Cows which first calved since January 1, 1994. Pedigree is traced back 3 generations from cows with data.	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	All parities	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Includes all test day records between 5 and 365 days in milk (DIM). test day records are expressed as 24-hour yields.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No extension of records is required	
Sire categories	All bulls	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	Heterogeneous herd-test day variance adjustment, adjustment factors are estimated every run
Pre-adjustment of phenotypic records for days pregnant	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT (milk yield, fat yield, protein yield, somatic cell score) – ML (1, 2, 3+) - RR – TD -BLUP– AM.  Later lactations (4 and up) are considered to be genetically the same as third lactation, permanent environmental effects in lactation 6 and later are assumed to be the same as 5th lactation.	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Fixed: Herd-test day
Regression on DIM within Parity - Age of calving - Region - Time Period - Season combination (6th order polynomials).
Random: Animal lactation curve, lactation curve for permanent environment (4th oder polynomials).	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	Yes, see pre-adjustments	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom parent groups are defined based on ancestry, birth year, breed and selection pathway	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	Blending of Interbull proofs (previous evaluation) of foreign proven bulls.	
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	Method 3	
Expression of genetic evaluations If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	EBV in kgs (305- day yield) within each lactation then averaged across lactations.	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Rolling base yearly updated in April, defined by cows born 6 to 8 calendar years ago, that have test day records included in the genetic evaluation: e.g. April 2014: cows born 2006 to 2008	
Calculation of reliability	Similar to the procedure used to calculate EDC's	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Daughters with at least 3 TD-records in at least 10 herds	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	Yes. Economic weights HOL-CHE: fat 5%, pro 27%; Economic weights SIM-CHE: fat 6%, pro 16%	
Anticipated changes in the near future	none	
Key reference on methodology applied	Schaeffer, L. R., J. Jamrozik, G. J. Kistemaker, and B. J. Van Doormaal. 1999. Experience with a test day model. J. Dairy Sci. (Abstract & to be submitted for publication)  Jamrozik, J., L. R. Schaeffer, and F. Grignola. 1998. Genetic parameters for production traits and somatic cell score of Canadian Holsteins with multiple trait random regression model. 6WCGALP. 23:303-306. Jamrozik, J., L. R. Schaeffer, Z. Liu, and G. Jansen. 1997. Multiple trait random regression test day model for production traits. Interbull Bulletin No. 16:43.	
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
Internet: http://www.qualitasag.ch

EBV’s published by herdbook organisations:
swissherdbook cooperative
Schützenstrasse 10, CH-3052 Zollikofen
http://www.swissherdbook.ch
Holstein Association of Switzerland
Route de Grangeneuve 27, CH-1725 Posieux
http://www.holstein.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 PR

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

Country (or countries):	Switzerland	
Main trait group:	Production	
Breed(s):	Holstein, Simmental	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk yield:
	.41	481632	a = 0; c = 1; b = 1; d = 0	
Fat yield:
	.34	827	a = 0; c = 1; b = 1; d = 0	
Protein yield:
	.37	412	a = 0; c = 1; b = 1; d = 0	
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.

Lactation heritabilities (diagonal), 305d PE correlations (above diagonal) and 305d genetic correlations (below diagonal) for Holstein and Simmental breeds
 	M1	F1	P1	SCS1	M2	F2	P2	SCS2	M3	F3	P3	SCS3	
													
M1	0.40	0.91	0.97	-0.19	0.48	0.43	0.49	-0.10	0.43	0.36	0.42	-0.00	
F1	0.61	0.35	0.94	-0.18	0.41	0.49	0.47	-0.09	0.39	0.45	0.42	-0.01	
P1	0.88	0.74	0.34	-0.16	0.47	0.47	0.52	-0.09	0.42	0.39	0.44	0.00	
SCS1	0.06	0.04	0.05	0.23	-0.07	-0.07	-0.07	0.31	-0.07	-0.06	-0.06	0.25	
M2	0.81	0.46	0.71	-0.02	0.42	0.92	0.96	-0.27	0.52	0.45	0.51	-0.06	
F2	0.45	0.83	0.58	-0.02	0.62	0.35	0.94	-0.29	0.48	0.55	0.52	-0.09	
P2	0.68	0.59	0.80	-0.01	0.88	0.76	0.39	-0.25	0.53	0.51	0.57	-0.07	
SCS2	0.02	-0.01	0.02	0.71	-0.15	-0.16	-0.14	0.27	-0.16	-0.18	-0.16	0.50	
M3	0.76	0.39	0.67	-0.04	0.90	0.53	0.80	-0.18	0.39	0.91	0.96	-0.26	
F3	0.41	0.76	0.55	-0.04	0.54	0.90	0.70	-0.15	0.63	0.33	0.93	-0.29	
P3	0.59	0.52	0.73	-0.04	0.75	0.67	0.90	-0.15	0.87	0.79	0.37	-0.24	
SCS3	0.09	0.04	0.07	0.64	-0.07	-0.10	-0.08	0.78	-0.11	-0.14	-0.12	0.25	

Heritability, Genetic and permanent environmental variances
(milk, fat, protein – 305d yield (kg2), SCS – average daily score).
Combined values are submitted to Interbull

Effect	Trait	Lactation	Variance	
Genetic	Milk	1	414,301	
		2	580,426	
		≥ 3	650,821	
		Combined	481,632	
	Fat	1	640	
		2	977	
		≥ 3	1,193	
		Combined	827	
	Protein	1	324	
		2	505	
		≥ 3	599	
		Combined	412	
	SCS	1	.353	
		2	.439	
		≥ 3	.503	
		Combined	.347	
Permanent	Milk	1	436,870	
Environment		2	640,662	
		≥ 3	559,223	
	Fat	1	634	
		2	978	
		≥ 3	934	
	Protein	1	412	
		2	592	
		≥ 3	549	
	SCS	1	.722	
		2	.700	
		≥ 3	.554	
Heritability	Milk	Combined	.41	
	Fat	Combined	.34	
	Protein	Combined	.37	
	SCS	Combined	.25