Status as of: 2011-09-20

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Switzerland	
Main trait group1 NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Female fertility	
Breed(s)	Red Holstein and Holstein	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2 Attach an appendix if needed	Non Return Rate after 56 Days (NRR), % (Trait 4)
Interval from Calving to First Service (ICF), days (Trait 2)	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Inseminations reported by AI-technicians via AI-companies (~95%) or directly by breeders (~5%), natural services reported by bull owners.	
Time period for data inclusion	All AI and NS records since 1994	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Records of cows from all lactations (no virgin heifers)	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	First service within lactation used if: 30 days  ICF  200 days;  Occurrence of a second service within 12 to 56 days after first service invokes a return event (Non Return Event = 0 or false)	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	all sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	none	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT – BLUP – AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Age*parity (both, F); sampling code (NRR, F); year*month of calving (ICF, F); year*month of service (NRR, F); herd*year (both, R); technician (NRR, R); service bull*batch of sperm collection (NRR, R); PE (both, R)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	none	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	genetic groups are assigned to unknown parents according to birth year, sex and origin of the 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, 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	Standardized:
days from calving- first inseminations 
Percentage of daughters not inseminated within 56 days after first insemination	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	rolling base, cows born 2003-2005

April 2012	
Calculation of reliability	Reliablities are approximated using the approach of Strabel et al. 2001, J.Anim. Sci. 79:833-839, implemented in program accf90 by I. Mistzal	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	For both traits (NRR and ICF): Reliability(ICF)  65 % EBVs’ are published for bulls only	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	4	
Use in total merit index4	no	
Anticipated changes in the near future	none	
Key reference on methodology applied	Schnyder U. & Stricker C., 2002, Interbull Bulletin No. 29, 138-141	
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 organisation:
swissherdbook cooperative
Schützenstrasse 10, CH-3052 Zollikofen
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 FF

Parameters used in genetic evaluation

Country (or countries):	Switzerland	
Main trait group:	Female fertility	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Red Holstein	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Trait 1: Maiden heifer’s ability to conceive						
Trait 2: Lactating cow’s ability to start cycling	Number of days between calving and first service	x	0.04	31.52	b= 5.61, c = 12 d=100	
Trait 3: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 1						
Trait 4: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 2	Proportion of non return events within 56 days after first service (%)	x	0.01	0.0022	b= .047, c = - 12, d=100	
Trait 5: : Lactating cow’s interval calving-conception						
						
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.

Genetic and residual covariances for countries with national multiple trait evaluations. Genetic covariances on upper diagonals, residual covariances on lower diagonals.
Trait name	Trait 1: 	Trait 2: 	Trait 3:	Trait 4:	Trait 5:	
Trait 1: Maiden heifer’s ability to conceive						
Trait 2: Lactating cow’s ability to start cycling				0.0011		
Trait 3: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 1						
Trait 4: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 2		-0.6393				
Trait 5: : Lactating cow’s interval calving-conception