Status as of: 2018-04-30

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Germany, Austria and Luxembourg	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Female Fertility	
Breed(s)	HOLstein (HOL, RED, MRY, DFR), Red Dairy Cattle (RDC) and JERsey (JER)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Trait 1: non-return rate 56 days of virgin heifer (NRh), in %
Trait 2: interval from first to last inseminations virgin heifer (FSh), in days 
Trait 3: interval from calving to first insemination of cow (CF), in days
Trait 4: non-return rate 56 days of cow (NRc), in %
Trait 5: interval from first to last inseminations of cow (FSc), in days
Days open (DO) of cow is derived as sum of CF and FSc.	
Method of measuring and collecting data	All first insemination data from all virgin heifers and cows from herds that are enrolled in milk recording programme by farmers and AI technicians	
Time period for data inclusion	Insemination data from cows calved since 1995 onwards and from virgin heifers born since 1994. For traits interval first to last inseminations, records are included when subsequent calving is available, at least two inseminations are recorded or expected calving date is already passed.	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Insemination records of virgin heifer plus first to second lactations of cow. All cow parities are weighted equally. Heifer and cow data are treated as different traits.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Minimum and maximum values of the fertility traits are set for data editing and selection:
Interval calving to first insemination: 21 to 250 days
Interval first to last inseminations: 0 or 11 days as minimum 
Gestation length: 265 to 295 days
Calving interval: 286 to 600 days 
Maximum values of FSh, FSc and DO are determined indirectly via maximum value of calving interval. 
Herd-years with less than 4 observations are discarded.
Herd-years with non-return rates (heifers and cows separately) not significantly differing from one are discarded.	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No extension or projection of fertility trait records is required	
Sire categories	All categories of bulls are evaluated jointly	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No pre-adjustment for environmental effects	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT – ML – RP – BLUP – AM 	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Fixed: Fixed herd-year effect, parity x age x month of insemination x region x year, type of service sire x owner stud of service sire x user stud of female, service sire effect, 
For non-return traits NRh and NRc, sexed or regular semen are fitted as a fixed effect
Random: random year effect within service sire, random permanent environmental effect of cow	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No adjustment for heterogeneous variance	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Phantom parent groups are defined by selection path and birth year (groups of 5 years) within breed
No special modification of relationship matrix is done	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No foreign/Interbull information is included in the national evaluations	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See Appendix	
System validation	Interbull trend validation method 3, Mendelian Sampling Test
Residual analysis, regular checks on data quality and proofs	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Proofs of the five traits, FSh, NRh, CF, NRc, and FSc, are expressed in days or percentages but published in relative breeding values (RBV) with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 12. So is the proof of days open in days. Fertility index (RZR) is calculated, on RBV scale, with 
RZR = -1/8 * sFSh + 1/8 * sNRh - 1/4 sCF + 2/8*sNRc - 2/8*sFSc	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	base population: all female animals 4 - 6 years old (mean of 100 for RBV within each breed)
yearly in April 	
Calculation of reliability	Using the multiple trait effective daughter contribution (MTEDC) method by Liu et al. (2004)	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Reliability of fertility index proof of a bull should be at least 30% and daughters in at least 10 herds (interval from calving to first insemination CF).	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	Three times per year (April, August and December)	
Use in total merit index4	10% of weights on fertility index RZR in the German total merit index RZG	
Anticipated changes in the near future	N/A	
Key reference on methodology applied	Liu, Z., F. Reinhardt, A. Bünger, and R. Reents 2004. Derivation and calculation of approximate reliabilities and daughter yield deviations of a random regression test-day model for genetic evaluation of dairy cattle. J. Dairy Sci. 87:1896-1907.
Liu, Z.,  J. Jaitner, F. Reinhardt, E. Pasman, S. Rensing, and R. Reents 2008. Genetic Evaluation of Fertility Traits of Dairy Cattle Using a Multiple-Trait Animal Model . J. Dairy Sci. 91:4333-4343.	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	vit, Department of Biometrics and Genetic Evaluation,
Heinrich-Schröder-Weg 1, 27283 Verden/Aller, GERMANY
Telefon: 0049 - 4231 - 955 10
Fax: 0049 - 4231 - 955 166
e-mail: ge@vit.de or info@vit.de,  website: http://www.vit.de	
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):	Germany, Austria and Luxembourg (DEU)	
Main trait group:	Female Fertility	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Holstein, Red Dairy Cattle, Jersey	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Non-Return rate to 56 days, virgin heifer (NRh)	Interbull trait 1 (HCO)	X	.012	144		
Interval first to last inseminations virgin
 (FSc) heifer			.014	144		
Interval from calving to first insemination (CF)	Interbull trait 2 (CRC)	X	.039	144		
Non-Return rate to 56 days, cow (NRc)	Interbull trait 3 (CC1)	X	.015	144		
Interval from first to last insemination, cow (FSc)	Interbull trait 4 (CC2)	X	.010	144		
Days open (DO)	Interbull trait 5 (INT)	X	.026	144		

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):	Germany, Austria and Luxembourg (DEU)	
Main trait group:	Female Fertility	
Breed(s):	HOL (HOL, RED, MRY) &  RDC	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Heifer conception
	.012	144		
Cow recycling
	.039	144		
Lactating cows ability to conceive (1)
	.015	144		
Lactating cows ability to conceive (2)	.010	144		
Interval traits
	.026	144		
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.

Genetic and residual covariances for countries with national multiple trait evaluations. Genetic covariances on upper diagonals, residual covariances on lower diagonals (on original scale, not on RBV scale).
Trait name	Trait 1: 	Trait 2: 	Trait 3:	Trait 4:	Trait 5:	
Trait 1: 
		-0.660	17.88	-3.492	-4.22	
Trait 2: 
	0		2.059	12.495	58.50	
Trait 3: 
	0	198.85		-11.324	-10.53	
Trait 4: 	0	464.08	-837.81		37.42	
Trait 5: 
	0