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)	Holstein	
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 November 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 October 2002	
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
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; ~100 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 with spring evaluation, defined by bulls born 8 to 10 calendar years ago, e.g. April 2014: bulls born 2004 to 2006
April 2015	
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) in at least 10 herds for direct traits
70 calvings of bulls’ daughters in at least 10 herds 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
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.swissherdbook.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):	Holstein	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Direct gestation length	Days from successful insemination to calving		0.596	4.7032		
Direct calving ease	Calving ease score multiplied by 100	X	0.053	43.604	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 6.603; d = 100	
Direct (inverse) stillbirth	Percentage of calves born alive	X	0.007	0.4385	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 0.662; d = 100	
Direct birth weight	Weight of calf at birth, kg		0.174	1.5922		
Maternal gestation length	Days from successful insemination to calving		0.155	1.2225		
Maternal calving ease	Calving ease score multiplied by 100	X	0.041	33.682	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 5.804; d = 100	
Maternal (inverse) stillbirth	Percentage of calves born alive	X	0.020	1.2271	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 1.108; d = 100	
Maternal birth weight	Weight of calf at birth, kg		0.050	0.4588		

						

						

						
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):	Holstein	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct calving ease:
	0.053	43.604	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 6.603; d = 100	
Maternal calving ease:	0.041	33.682	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 5.804; d = 100	
Direct stillbirth:
	0.007	0.4385	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 0.662; d = 100	
Maternal stillbirth:
	0.020	1.2271	a = 0.0; c =12; b = 1.108; 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.

Heritabilities (diagonal) and genetic correlations (above diagonal):
Direct gestation length	0.596	-0.387	-0.032	0.327	0.793	-0.075	0.099	0.220	
Direct calving ease		0.053	0.210	-0.935	-0.391	0.516	0.218	-0.758	
Direct (inverse) stillbirth			0.007	-0.159	-0.028	0.082	0.300	0.006	
Direct birth weight				0.174	0.312	-0.376	-0.161	0.753	
Maternal gestation length					0.155	-0.197	-0.070	0.366	
Maternal calving ease						0.041	0.505	-0.589	
Maternal (inverse) stillbirth							0.020	-0.091	
Maternal birth weight								0.050