Status as of: 2014-01-14

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)   GBR		
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!                                                           	Conformation	
Breed(s)	BSW	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	
 See Appendix 	

Method of measuring and collecting data	
Breed Society Classifier – 
Breed Society Linear Classification Scheme. 	

Time period for data inclusion	
1983 –till date. 	

Age groups (e.g. parities) included	
 1st Lactation Assessment only. 
No Re-classifications 	

Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	
 Duplicate Identity check. Primary Identity Check. 
Stage of Lactation. 
Age at Classification. 	

Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	   N/A	
Sire categories	 ALL	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	
 Herd Year Visit ( F ) MT BLUP Animal Model 
Month ( F ) 
Age (LIN & Quad) ( C ) 
Stage of Lactation (LIN & QUAD) ( C ) 
Animal ( R ) ST BLUP (Composites 	

Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	 See above	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	 N/A	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Yes	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	 No yet decided	
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	Interbull Trend and Run Comparison Validation	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Standardised Breeding Values.	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Cows Born in 2005	
Calculation of reliability	Method of K. Meyer LPSci 21 87-100	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	  Reliability ≥ 0.50	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	  3	
Use in total merit index4	 No	
Anticipated changes in the near future	None	
Key reference on methodology applied		
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	EGENES, SRUC  Research
Roslin Institute Building
Bush Estate
Midlothian
Scotland, UK
EH26  9RG
Tel:  +44 -131-535-3241
Fax:  +44-131-535-3121
E-mail: mike.coffey@sruc.ac.uk
Internet:  www.egenes.co.uk
	
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):		
Main trait group:		
Breed (repeat as necessary):		

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
					MEAN                   SD	
						
Stature 	Same as WHFF 	0.55	1.250	0.480 	0.957	
						
Chest Width 	    0.25	0.331	-0.030 	0.373	
						
Body Depth 	0.27	0.395	0.083 	0.426	
						
Angularity 	0.51	0.862	0.494 	0.759	
						
Rump Angle 	0.27	0.270	-0.076 	0.319	
						
Rump Width 	0.38	0.613	0.205 	0.536	
						
Rear Leg Set 	0.27	0.363	0.127 	0.343	
						
Rear Leg Rear View 	N/A	N/A	N/A 	
						
Foot Angle 	0.31	0.565	0.036 	0.444	
						
Fore Udder 	0.26	0.374	-0.011 	0.380	
						
Rear Udder Height 	0.40	0.686	0.270 	0.517	
						
Udder Support 	0.10	0.077	0.027 	0.138	
						
Udder Depth 	0.22	0.327	-0.096 	0.244	
						
Front Teat Placement 	0.25	0.250	-0.013 	0.383	
						
Teat Length 	0.37	0.654	0.036 	0.553	
						
Rear Teat Placement 	N/A	N/A	N/A 	
						
Total Score 	0.30	3.781	-0.020 	1.195	
						
Mammary 	0.30	3.407	-0.017 	1.376	
						
Overall Feet & Leg Score 	0.30	5.317	-0.091 	0.985	
						
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.

MT  BLUP Genetic correlations for group of traits

  ST           CW		BD		ANG
   -            0.44		0.65		0.76
     -                      0.62		-0.15
                              -                           0.29
                     			  -

RA	RW		RLS		FA
-             -0.40		-0.04		-0.08                        
                 -                          0.11                     0.08
                                -  		-0.60
						    -
FUA	RUH		CL		UD
  -            0.51		0.18		0.38
                 -   		0.19		-0.08
                                          -      		0.33
						-

TPR	TPS		TL
-             0.22		-0.75
                -                      -0.18
                                          -

Form GE	Appendix CO

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

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

Trait	Definition	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Stature					
Chest Width					
Body Depth					
Angularity					
Rump Angle					
Rump Width					
Rear Leg Set					
Rear Leg Rear View					
Foot Angle					
Fore Udder					
Rear Udder Height					
Udder Support					
Udder Depth					
Front Teat Placement					
Teat Length					
Rear Teat Placement					
Overall Conformation Score					
Overall Udder Score					
Overall Feet & Leg Score					
Locomotion					
Body Condition Score					
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.