Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Switzerland	
Main trait group1	Workability	
Breed(s)	Holstein (Black&White and Red&White)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2 	Milking speed: very slow to very fast
Temperaments: nervous/calm	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Farmers are surveyed by classifiers while conformation classification. Scale of 1 to 6 for milking speed and 1 to 2 for temperament	
Time period for data inclusion	all data since 1992	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	1st parity animals	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Only the first observation on a cow is used. For inclusion of a record age at first calving has to be between 17 and 50 months and days in milk has to be between 8 and 305 days.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories		
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	none	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ST BLUP AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Fixed effects: classifier * half-year, year * season, age at calving, lactation stage, heterosis (Holstein X Simmental, grouped into 7 classes), recombination loss (Holstein X Simmental, grouped into 7 classes). Random effects: herd (herd * year if > 14 animals otherwise herd * 2 years if > 14 animals otherwise herd * 3 years)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	no	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom parent groups are assigned based on country of origin, birth year, breed and selection path.	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	no	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See appendix	
System validation		
Expression of genetic evaluations  If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Relative breeding values with mean 100 and standard deviation 12	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Cows born 6 to 8 years before present year.
Base is updated every April.	
Calculation of reliability	Reliabilities are approximated using the approach of Tier and Meyer, 2004, J. Anim. Breed. Genet. 121.2, pp. 77–89, implemented in the program ApaX.	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Daughters in at least 10 herds	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3 (following Interbull releases)	
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 41 768 92 92
Fax: +41 41 768 92 99
e-mail: info@qualitasag.ch
URL: http://www.qualitasag.ch

EBV’s published by herdbook organisations:
swissherdbook cooperative
Schützenstrasse 10, CH-3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland
URL: http://www.swissherdbook.ch
and
Holstein Association of Switzerland
Rte de Grangeneuve 27, CH-1725 Posieux, Switzerland
Phone:  +41 26 305 59 12
URL: 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

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

Country (or countries):	Switzerland	
Main trait group:	Workability	
Breed(s):	Holstein (Black&White and Red&White)	

Trait	h2	genetic
variancea
(σG2)	official proof
standardisation formula	
Milking speed	0.17	0.1142	(ebv/σG)*12+100	
Temperament	0.09	0.0109	(ebv/σG)*12+100