Status as of: 2019-09-04

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	NORWAY	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	FEMALE FERTILITY	
Breed(s)	Norwegian Red (NRF)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	NoInsH: Number of inseminations and natural services as heifer. Five or more are counted as 5. Normal transformation based on class frequencies.
 NoInsC1: Number of inseminations and natural services in 1st parity. Five or more are counted as 5. Normal transformation based on class frequencies.
NoInsC1_4: Number of inseminations and natural services in each of 1st to 4th parity. Five or more are counted as 5. Normal transformation based on class frequencies.
CFI1: Recycling, ln of days from calving to first insemination or natural service in 1st parity. Days within 18-180.
CFI1_4: Recycling, ln of days from calving to first insemination or natural service in each of 1st to 4th parity. Days within 18-180.
KgProt1: 305d lactation protein yield, 1st lactation. 
KgProt1_3: 305d lactation protein yield, 1st to 3rd lactation.
	
Method of measuring and collecting data	AI-technicans and veterinarians report all inseminations into the AI-database. Insemination records are transferred to the Norwegian Dairy herd Recording System. Natural service is reported by farmer or advisor. Double insemination is defined as inseminating/mating again within 0 to 5 days.	
Time period for data inclusion	NoInsH since 1996.
NoInsC1, NoInsC1_4 since 1998.
CFI1, CFI1_4, KgProt1, KgProt1_3 since 1979.	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Heifers; 1st to 4th parity cows.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Heifers and cows not treated for reproductive disorders by veterinarian for NoIns, or not before first insemination for CFI.
Short cycles (<15 days) are discarded.
Interval between inseminations within a parity must be less than 295 days. 
Interval between first and last insemination within a parity must be less than 265.
If NoIns=1, culling must occur after 265 days from first insemination.
Latency period is 150 days for CFI and 206 days for NoIns.

Heifers: Age at 1st insemination 13 to 24 months.
1st parity: Age at 1st insemination 22 to 42 months.
2nd parity: Age at 1st insemination 34 to 56 months.
3rd parity: Age at 1st insemination 46 to 68 months.
4th parity: Age at 1st insemination 56 to 82 months.

1st parity: Age at calving 500 to 1460 days. 
2nd parity: Age at calving 780 to 1860 days.
3rd parity: Age at calving 1100 to 2260 days.
4th parity: Age at calving 55 to 79 months. 	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)		
Sire categories	One category, AI bulls of  Norwegian Red.	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT-AM, (NoInsH, NoInsC1, CFI1, KgProt1).
MT-R-AM, (NoInsC1_4, CFI1_4, KgProt1_3).	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	NoInsH:
(F) Age in months at first insemination, 14 levels.
(F) Feeding system at first insemination, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at first insemination, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at first insemination, 256 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at first insemination, 77,367 levels
(R) Herd by year at first insemination, 237,901 levels.
NoInsC1:
(F) Age in months at first insemination after calving, 21 levels.
(F) Feeding system at calving, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at calving, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at calving, 243 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at calving, 75,542 levels
(R) Herd by year at calving, 216,029 levels.
CFI1:
(F) Age in months at calving, 22 levels.
(F) Feeding system at calving, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at calving, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at calving, 473 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at calving, 171,318 levels
(R) Herd by year at calving, 585,501 levels.
KgProt1:
(F) Age in months at calving, 18 levels.
(F) Days open, 14 levels
(F) Feeding system at calving, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at calving, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at calving, 477 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at calving, 172,793
(R) Herd by year at calving, 599,664 levels.
NoInsC1_4:
(F) Parity by Age in months at first ins. after calving, 94 levels.
(F) Feeding system at calving, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at calving, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at calving, 243 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at calving,80,844 levels
(R) Herd by year at calving, 250,779 levels.
(R) Permanent environmental effect of cows
CFI1_4:
(F) Parity by Age in months at calving, 169 levels.
(F) Feeding system at calving, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at calving, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at calving, 473 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at calving, 174,172 levels
(R) Herd by year at calving, 637,812 levels.
(R) Permanent environmental effect of cows
KgProt1_3
(F) Parity by Age in months at calving, 58 levels.
(F) Days open, 42 levels
(F) Feeding system at calving, 3 levels.
(F) Milking system at calving, 5 levels
(F) Year by month at calving, 477 levels
(F) Herd by 4-year at calving, 173,827 levels
(R) Herd by year at calving, 631,178 levels.
(R) Permanent environmental effect of cows

Year of calving is defined “dynamic”. Most recent year =calvings after (today-465 days). Years before that is 365*n days.	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	None	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Complete additive relationship with inbreeding. No genetic groups.	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	None	
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, FF, as applicable, if you participate in the international genetic evaluations of Interbull	
System validation	Check on genetic trend.	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	RBV with mean=100 and SD=12.
	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Rolling average of dairy cows born 3 to 8 years previous to current evaluation. Updated at every evaluation.
Standard deviation based on AI-bulls born 5 to 12 years prior to July 1st 2019. Limits are updated every 2nd year. Next change July 1st 2021.	
Calculation of reliability	Interbull procedure of Mix99.	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Daughters in at least 10 different herds.
At least 70 daughters with phenotype (50 for imported AI-bulls).	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	3	
Use in total merit index4	Fertility index accounts for 11.4 % in TMI.   Contains: NoInsH (3.45%), NoInsCow1_4 (90.41%) and CFI1_4 (3.45%).	
Anticipated changes in the near future		
Key reference on methodology applied	MiX99 Development Team (2017). MiX99: A software package for solving large mixed model equations. Release XI/2017. Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). Jokioinen, Finland.  http://www.luke.fi/mix99.
Strandén, I., M. Lidauer, E.A. Mäntysaari and J. Pösö (2000). Calculation of Interbull weighting factors for the Finnish test day model. Interbull Bulletin no. 26: 78-79.	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	GENO SA, Storhamargata 44, N-2317 Hamar, Norway.
Phone: +47 95020600
Fax:     +47 62520610
E-mail: post@geno.no
Web site: www.geno.no	
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 ® 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):	NORWAY	
Main trait group:	FEMALE FERTILITY	
Breed (repeat as necessary):	Norwegian Red	

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
NoInsH	Heifers, normalised	X  (T1)	.0161	1.21798	c=12   d=100	
NoInsC1	First parity, normalised		.0242	2.0155		
CFI1	First parity, ln(days)		.0478	0.004135		
KgProt1	First parity, kg		.2784	416.421		
						
NoInsC1_4	First to fourth parity, normalised	X  (T3,T4)	.0203	1.66041	c=12   d=100	
	Repeatability=.0704					
CFI1_4	First to fourth parity, ln(days)	X  (T2,T5)	.0633	.005448	c=12   d=100	
	Repeatability=.0864					
 KgProt1_3	First to third parity, kg		.4123	365.772		
	Repeatability=.6689					
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.

Table 1a. Genetic covariances above diagonal, residual covariances below
	NoInsH	NoInsC1	CFI1	KgProt1	
NoInsH	1.21798
74.5367	1.07151	-0.001365	0.263209	
NoInsC1	1.97182	2.01546
81.4238	0.03215	4.66389	
CFI1	-0.186678	-0.168488	0.00413466
0.0824207	0.20177	
KgProt1	3.50442	-8.68559	-0.142568	416.421
1079.08	

Table 1b. Genetic correlations above diagonal, residual correlations below
	NoInsH	NoInsC1	CFI1	KgProt1	
NoInsH	---	.6839	-0192	.0117	
NoInsC1	-.0253	---	.3522	.1610	
CFI1	-.0753	-.0650	---	.1580	
KgProt1	.0124	-.0293	-.0151	---	

Table 2a. Genetic covariances above diagonal, residual covariances below
	NoInsC1_4	CFI1_4	KgProt1_3	
NoInsC1_4	1.66041
80.1025	0.0140264	5.10303	
CFI1_4	-0.175207	0.0054483
0.0806241	0.340617	
 KgProt1_3	-15.4317	-0.488401	365.772
521.374	

Table 2b. Genetic correlations above diagonal, residual correlations below
	NoInsC1_4	CFI1_4	KgProt1_3	
NoInsC1_4	---	.1475	.2071	
CFI1_4	-.0689	---	.2413	
 KgProt1_3	-.0755	-.0753	---	

Table 3. Herd by year covariances above diagonal
	NoInsH	NoInsC1	CFI1	KgProt1	
NoInsH	0.468662	0.041523	0.00277	1.25163	
NoInsC1		0.656677	-0.0116559	0.002538	
CFI1			0.00359647	-0.0225226	
KgProt1				191.626	

Table 4. Herd by year covariances above diagonal, permanent environment covariances below
	NoInsC1_4	CFI1_4	KgProt1_3	
NoInsC1_4	0.633481
4.403460	-0.0130123	-0.681445	
CFI1_4	-0.0707591	0.00348946
0.00681609	-0.227937	
 KgProt1_3	14.5579	0.398197	162.493
687.338	

Form GE	Appendix FF

Parameters for national genetic evaluations for female fertility traits as provided to Interbull

Country (or countries):	NORWAY	
Main trait group:	Female fertility	
Breed(s):	Norwegian Red	

Trait name	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Maiden heifer’s ability to conceive:	.0161	1.21798	c=12   d=100	
Lactating cow’s
ability to start cycling:	.0633	0.005448	c=-12   d=100	
Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 1:	.0203	1.66041	c=12   d=100	
Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 2:	.0203	1.66041	c=-12    d=100	
Lactating cow’s interval calving-conception:	.0633	0.00548	c=-12    d=100	
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.

Genetic and residual covariances for countries with national multiple trait evaluations. Genetic covariances on upper diagonals, residual covariances on lower diagonals.
Trait name	Trait 1: 	Trait 2: 	Trait 3:	Trait 4:	Trait 5:	
Trait 1: Maiden heifer’s ability to conceive						
Trait 2: Lactating cow’s
ability to start cycling						
Trait 3: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 1						
Trait 4: Lactating cow’s ability to conceive 2						
Trait 5: Lactating cow’s interval calving-conception