DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Switzerland	
Main trait group1 NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Workability	
Breed(s)	Jersey	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2 Attach an appendix if needed	Milking speed, score (1 = very slow, 6 = very fast), multiplied by 10 for genetic evaluation	
Method of measuring and collecting data	At linear description and classification, classifiers ask farmers to score milking speed of cows in first lactation on a scale from 1 (very slow) to 6 (very fast)	
Time period for data inclusion	Data since 1998	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	First parity	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records		
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	all bulls	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ST- BLUP-AM, evaluation together with conformation (teat traits), with correlations set to zero.	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd*3-year-period (R); classifier*half-year (F); season of classification*age at classification (F); stage of lactation (F); time (hour) of classification (F); housing system (F)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	None	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Unknown parents grouped by sex of parent, country of origin and year of birth of animal	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	None	
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, 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	Standardized to a mean of 100 and a genetic standard deviation of 12: RBV = ((EBV – mean EBV of base animals) / genetic standard deviation) * 12 + 100	
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 own records included in the genetic evaluation	
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 with observations in at least 10 herds Cows: not published	
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 organization: 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
and
Swiss Jersey Association
web site: http://www.jersey.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 (e.g. direct longevity, combined 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).

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

Country (or countries):	Switzerland	
Main trait group:	Workability	
Breed(s):	Jersey	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Milkability:	0.13	0.09298	(ebv/σG)*12+100	
Temperament				
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.