Status as of: 2014-08-18

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	CROATIA	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	PRODUCTION	
Breed(s)	SIM	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Test-day records of daily milk (kg), fat (kg), and protein yield (kg)	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Milk recording (ICAR guidelines) AT4 and BT4 method 	
Time period for data inclusion	Calvings from January 2002	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Parities: 1st - 10th. Additionally, parities from the 7th to the 10th joined into a common class (parity 7+)	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Days in milk: 5 - 360 
Number of cows per year of testing by herd >= 3	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	No	
Sire categories	AI	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	No	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ST – FR – R - TD – BLUP – AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	F: - parity, calving season, region
FR: - age at first calving, Ali - Schaeffer curve nested within parity
R: - herd - year of testing, permanent environment	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	No	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates	
System validation	Means and SDs for all variables calculated; means and SDs of BV for bulls
Genetic trend validation - method 3	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	see PAGE 3 for heritability/genetic variance estimates	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Mean of cows born in 2003.

2014	
Calculation of reliability	Calculated from additive genetic variance and prediction error variance (PEV, Mrode, 1996).	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Reliability >=50% (M) and >=35% (F)	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	4	
Use in total merit index4	SIM: Fat yield 8.0 %, protein yield 32.0 %	
Anticipated changes in the near future	Change of genetic base	
Key reference on methodology applied	Špehar M. (2010): Prediction of breeding values for milk traits in Croatian dairy cattle. M.Sc. Thesis, 119 pp. Ljubljana, Univ. of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty. 
Web site: http://stoka.hpa.hr/UzgojneVrijednosti/Web/cattle/1402/_main_td.html 	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Croatian Agricultural Agency, Department for genetic evaluation, Ilica 101, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia, Phone: +385-1-3903-176, Fax: +385-1-3903-192, mspehar@hpa.hr 	
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):	CROATIA	
Main trait group:	PRODUCTION	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	SIM	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Milk yield	TD record (kg/day)	X	0.26	5.5629	BV12=((BV-(0.168))/1.749)*12+100	
Fat yield	TD record (kg/day)	X	0.19	0.0101	BV12=((BV-(0.004))/0.073)*12+100	
Protein yield	TD record (kg/day)	X	0.20	0.0053	BV12=((BV-(0.005))/0.053)*12+100	
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 PR

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for production traits as provided to Interbull

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

Trait	h2a	Genetic
variancea	Official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk yield:	0.26	5.5629 kg2		
Fat yield:	0.19	0.0101 kg2		
Protein yield:	0.20	0.0053 kg2		
a	If lactations, or part of lactations, are treated as separate traits, provide heritability estimates and genetic variances separately for each lactation, as well as for all lactations 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.