Status as of: (2013-09-03)

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	Republic of Ireland	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Production	
Breed(s)	Holstein-Friesian/Jersey/Red Breeds/Simmental 	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Test day observations for milk(kg), protein(kg) and fat(kg)
	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Collected by milk recording agencies. 	
Time period for data inclusion	Calving dates from 1996 onwards
	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	All lactations up to 15
	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Cows with records must have known sire, minimum age at calving 604 days, minimum calving interval 301 days 
	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	All sires
	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ST ML RR TD AM
	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Age Calving(F), Days Carried in Calf (F), Herd*testday (F), Heterosis(F), Recombination(F), 
Herd Year within and across lactation (R) 
Calving Year within and across lactation (R) 
Non Genetic (permanent environment) animal effect within and across lactation(R)
Non Genetic animal effect within later(3/4/5) lactations(R)
	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	Simultaneous adjustment of heterogeneous variance while solving the 
BLUP model (Lidauer et al., 2008).
Variance model: fixed production_month×year×lactation, and random herd×year×lactation for which an 1st order autoregressive
process between herd×year strata is assumed
	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Groups are formed based on year of birth, country of origin, breed and selection path (SD, DS, DD, DS, 2S, 2D). Small groups are merged.
	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation		
Genetic parameters in the evaluation	See Appendix
	
System validation	Interbull verification software
	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	ETA
	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Cows born 2005, milk recorded parity 1 in 2007
	
Calculation of reliability	Approximation of prediction error variances
	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Total merit index – Economic Breeding Index (EBI) 
	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	EBI = 32% production + 35% fertility/survival + 10% calving + 15% beef + 4% health +7% management

production = 31% milk(kgs) + 11% fat (kgs) + 58% prot (kgs)
	
Anticipated changes in the near future	-	
Key reference on methodology applied	Lidauer et al. (2008). Multiplicative random regression model for 
Heterogeneous variance adjustment in genetic evaluation for milk yield in Simmental. Journal of animal breeding and genetics 125, 3:
147-159
Meuwissen, T.H.E., Jong, G. de and Eng B. 1996. Joint estimation of breeding values and heterogeneous variance in Large data files J. Dairy Sci. 79:310-316
Miztal.I. and G.Wiggans, 1988. Approximation of prediction error variances in large-scale animal models. J. Dairy Sci. 71 (Suppl 2): 1988-32
Wiggans, G.R. Mistzal, I. and Van Vleck, L.D., 1988. Implementation of an animal model for genetic evaluation of dairy cattle in the United States. J. Dairy Sci. (Suppl 2): 54	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF)
Bandon, Co. Cork, Ireland.
Tel +353 (023) 20222 Fax +353 (023) 20229 aeu@icbf.com
www.icbf.com	
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):	REPUBLIC OF IRELAND	
Main trait group:	Production	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Holstein-Friesian/Jersey/Red Breeds/Simmental	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
Milk 1st Lact			0.37	685396		
Milk 2nd Lact			0.28	737336		
Milk 3rd Lact			0.32	844809		
Fat 1st Lact			0.34	997,57		
Fat 2nd Lact			0.26	1230.00		
Fat 3rd Lact			0.31	702.95		
Prot 1st Lact			0.37	556.8		
Prot 2nd Lact			0.31	610.08		
Prot 3rd Lact			0.31	702.95		

						

						

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):	REPUBLIC OF IRELAND	
Main trait group:	Production	
Breed(s):	Holstein-Friesian/Jersey/Red Breeds/Simmental	

Trait	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Milk yield:
	0.45	755847		
Fat Yield:
	0.42	1122.74		
Prot Yield:
	0.45	623.28		
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.