Status as of: 2016 – 12 – 29

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Germany, Austria, Luxembourg	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Milkability, Temperament
	
Breed(s)	HOLstein (Black & White, Red & White) and Red Dairy Cattle (RDC) 	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	RZD (relative breeding value milkability) consists of information from measured milk flow rate (kg/min) and subjective score of milking speed on a scale of 1 to 5. Temperament is scored subjectively on a scale of 1 to 5. 	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Milk flow rate (kg/min) is defined as average milk yield per minute measured with machine, and milking speed score is assigned subjectively by farmer. Only first lactation cows are scored / measured and included in the genetic evaluation. Milking temperament is scored by farmer on a scale of 1 to 5. The original subjective scores for milking temperament and milking speed, assigned before 2005, were converted to the scale of 1 to 5 used from 2005 onwards. 	
Time period for data inclusion	Subjective linear scoring and recording of milk flow rate since 1990. 	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Calving age is fitted in the model. No parity effect is included, because only first lactation cows are evaluated.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Age of first calving 20-36 months	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	N/A 	
Sire categories	All categories of bulls (i.e., AI, NS, imported)	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No pre-adjustments for environmental effects 	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	Multiple trait (5-traits), repeatability (for milk flow rate only), animal model, MT-AM  	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Herd-test-date-frequency for milk flow rate, and herd-classification-date for the other four traits. Age at first calving and days in milk for all traits. Classifier-year effect for all traits but milk flow rate. 	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	Phenotypic variances are standardised across region-year classes for the subjectively measured traits, milking temperament and milking speed. 	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Genetic groups are defined for unknown parents of animal based on breed, selection paths, year of birth of the animal. 	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See Table 1	
System validation	-	checks on data quality (raw data, pedigree information, etc.)
-	checks on results: changes in EBV between evaluations, genetic trends, stability of EBV over time,
-	The whole evaluation is a ISO 9001 certified process. 	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Single trait EBVs on original scale are not published. Instead, RBVs are published for RZD (relative breeding value milkability) and milking temperament (relative breeding value temperament) with  mean of 100 and standard deviation of 12 for bull base population. RZD is a linear function of milk flow rate and milking speed with equal weights on standardised scales:
RZD = 100 + 12*(0.5*zMFR + 0.5*zMS) , where zMFR and zMS are standardised breeding values with N(0,1) distribution for milk flow rate and milking speed, respectively. 	
Definition of genetic reference base

Next base change	RBV: yearly rolling base, updated in May, with all AI bulls progeny tested in Germany born 8 to 20 years before base change (youngest 3 years of bulls with complete information from test period; i.e., 2008: bulls born 1998-2000)
RBV August 2008 to AI bulls born 1998-2000	
Calculation of reliability	Reliability approximation using the multiple trait effective daughter  contribution method (MTEDC) 	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Milkability (RZD): at least 20 daughters in 10 herds for milking speed or at least 10 daughters in 5 herds for milk flow rate
Temperament: at least 20 daughters in 10 herds	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	HOL and RDC: 3 (April, August, December)	
Use in total merit index4	No	
Anticipated changes in the near future	None	
Key reference on methodology applied	S. Rensing and W. Ruten 2005 Interbull Bulletin 33:163-166.
Z. Liu, F. Reinhardt, A. Bünger, and R. Reents  2004 JDS 87:1896-1907.	
Key organization: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	vit w.V, Genetic Evaluation Division
Heinrich-Schröder-Weg 1, D-27283 Verden, Germany
Phone: +49-(0)4231-95510, fax: +49-(0)4231-955166
email: ge@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 (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):	Germany, Austria, Luxembourg	
Main trait group:	Milkability, Temperament	
Breed(s):	HOLstein (Black & White; Red & White) and Red Dairy Cattle (RDC)	

Trait	h2	Genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Milkability(RZD):
	.198	144		
Temperament
	.070	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.

Table 1. Heritabilities/repeatability (milk flow rate only) on diagonal, genetic correlations above the diagonal and residual correlations below the diagonal
	MFR	MSS	TEM	FTP	FTL	
Milk flow rate (MFR)	.25 / .70	.94	.07	.02	-.09	
Milking speed score (MSS)	.29	.08	.09	.10	-.16	
Temperament (TEM)	.13	.18	.07	.07	.10	
Teat placement front (FTP)	.02	.02	.02	.25	-.24	
Teat length (FTL)	-.11	-.03	.01	-.04	.26