Form GE								Status as of: 2016-09-06

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	France	
Main trait group1	Conformation	
Breed(s)	Brown Swiss	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
see appendix GE for details	27 linear traits (5 new in June 2012); 5 general characteristics (body, rump, feet and legs, udder, dairy character) ; milking speed, body condition score, temperament 

Overall conformation score = 1.4396 * [0.40 UD_o + 0.25 FL_o + 0.25 BODY_o + 0.10 RUMP_o ]	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Linear or scoring measurements by technicians (1-9, except for milking speed: 1-5)	
Time period for data inclusion	Records from September 1996	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Parity 1 (if missing then parity 2)	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	One score by cow. If by mistake, a cow is scored twice, the score is chosen as close as possible to 30 months	
Criteria for extension of records 
(if applicable)		
Sire categories	All sires	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT-BLUB AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Stage of lactation * parity * year(F); 
Age at calving * parity (1 or 2) * year(F); 
Herd – round – classifier(F)	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Groups of unknown parents defined according to sex, birth year and region or country origin of the progeny	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	Cf appendix CO and MTP	
System validation	Checks on Data quality; Planned connection between regions (= young bulls
with 1st crop daughters in several regions) during progeny test. EBV correlations; analysis of proofs’ variation according to number of daughters and status of bull (Progeny tested or not, 1st or 2nd crop). Validation of genetic trend (Interbull Methods II & III). Analysis of residuals within classes (ex: within department, region, 1st or 2nd crop)	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	RBV	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Male rolling base: the average BV of French AI bulls with at least 15 daughters is set to zero.
April 2016 (These bases change each February)	
Calculation of reliability		
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	REL ≥ 0.50 for BSW	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3 : April, August, December	
Use in total merit index4	ISU = 100 + 21.81 / 0.40* [0.40 INEL/25.2 + 0.12 SCScmb + 0.08 MAScmb  + 0.10 CC1cmb + 0.05 HCOcmb +  0.05 CRCcmb + 0.05 LONGcmb + 0.15 Overall conformation] 
(40% Production, 20% UdderHealth, 20% Female Fertility, 15% Conformation, 5% Longevity)	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied		
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Computing: 
INRA
Génétique Animale et Biologie Intégrative (GABI)
Domaine de Vilvert
F78352 Jouy en Josas cedex
Mail: didier.boichard@dga.jouy.inra.fr
Phone : +33 1 34 6 5 22 04, Fax : +33 1 34 65 22 10
http://www.jouy.inra.fr/gabi

Publishing:
Institut de l’Elevage
149 Rue de Bercy
F75595 Paris cedex 12
Mail: sophie.mattalia@idele.fr
Web site : www.idele.fr	
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 extension or 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/framesida-general.htm) and indicate random (R) or fixed (F).
4) Please give economic weights and indicate how they are expressed (preferably in genetic standard deviation unit
Form GE	Appendix CO

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for conformation traits as provided to Interbull
(all breeds except Brown Swiss)

Country (or countries):	France	
Main trait group:	Conformation	
Breed(s):	Brown Swiss	

trait	Definition	h²	genetic variance	official proof                               standardisation formula**: a=0, c=1, d: computed at each evaluation (rolling basis)  b factor given in this column:	
Stature	Height at sacrum (eye evaluated)	0.59	1.45	b=		1.0233	
Chest Width 	chest depth	0.38	0.54	b=		0.7361	
Body Depth	Maximum distance between top and bottom lines	0.38	0.48	b=		0.6906	
Angularity	General characteristic Dairy Character (so-called “Type” in French)	0.36	0.47	b=		0.6861	
Rump Angle	Hip to pins (level=4; optimum=5)	0.34	0.28	b=		0.5259	
Rump Width	Width at hips (eye evaluated)	0.34	0.48	b=		0.6911	
Rear Leg Side View	Straight to sickled (optimum=5)	0.17	0.18	b=		0.5290	
Foot Angle	Low to step (optimum=5)	0.13	0.14	b=		0.3726	
Heel Depth (Hoof Height)	Shallow to deep	0.09	0.09	b=		0.3028	
Fore Udder Attachment 	Udder attachment strength (otpimum=9)	0.29	0.63	b=		0.7915	
Rear Udder Attachment Height	Distance between vulva and top of secreting tissue	0.21	0.29	b=		0.5388	
Rear Udder Attachment Width	Rear Udder Attachment Width	0.27	0.46	b=		0.6813	
Udder Support	Cleft between teats and above	0.30	0.61	b=		0.7839	
Udder Depth	Distance between hocks and the bottom point of udder (level=4)	0.39	0.35	b=		0.5931	
Front Teat Placement	Distance between fore teats (optimum=5)	0.45	0.80	b=	 	0.8962	
Teat Length	Short to long (optimum=5)	0.47	0.76	b=		0.8724	
Rear Teat Placement	Rear Teat Placement	0.37	0.51	b=		0.7165	
Overall Conformation Score	Composite computed from 4 proofsc	0.41	1.00	 		 	
Overall Udder Score	Global score	0.37	5.39	b=		2.3211	
Overall Feet & Leg Score	Global score	0.10	0.86	b=		0.9247	
Locomotion	Locomotion	 	 	 		 	
Body Condition Score	Body Condition Score	 	 	 		 	
Fore Udder Length	Length; short to long (optimum=7)	0.28	0.49	b=		0.7002	
Teat Thickness	Right fore teat diameter (optimum=5)	0.37	0.43	b=		0.6524	
Hock Quality	Hock width (optimum=7)	0.29	0.30	b=		0.5453	
Udder Balance	udder balance (optimum=5)	0.27	0.23	b=		0.4835	
Pin Width	width at pins (optimum=8)	0.37	0.63	b=		0.7906	
Top Line	sway-backed to arched (optimum=7)	0.17	0.10	b=		0.3151	
Rump Length	distance between hip and pins (optimum=8)	0.28	0.31	b=		0.5547	
Overall Rump	Global score	0.19	1.67	b=		1.2910	
Overall Frame	Global score	0.49	6.14	b=		2.4778	
Teat Direction	Teat direction (optimum=5)	0.37	0.44	b=		0.6617	
Thurl Position	Thurl position (optimum=8)	0.14	0.15	b=		0.3879	
Milking Speed	Milking Speed	0.25	0.19	b=		0.4368	
a	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.
b	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 MTP

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for conformation traits: heritability and genetic correlation

Country (or countries):	France	
Main trait group:	Conformation	
Breed(s):	Brown Swiss	

Heritability (on the diagonal) and genetic correlations (above the diagonal) between traits.