Status as of: 2019-09-04

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	NOR (Norway)	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	Longevity	
Breed(s)	NRF (Norwegian Red)	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	1 year longevity: Number of days survived to end of 1st lactation – a maximum 305 days included (information trait)
2 year longevity: Number of days survived up to end of 2nd lactation – each lactation contributes at maximum 305 days (information trait)
3 year longevity: Number of days survived up to end of 3rd lactation – each lactation contributes at maximum 305 days (trait published)	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Data from the Norwegian Dairy Herd Recording System: Calving dates, date of disposal and birth dates	
Time period for data inclusion	1990 onwards. 	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	1st to 3rd lactation	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Data for a trait are included if:
1 year longevity: At least 305 day from 1st calving 
2 year longevity: At least 610 days from 1st calving 
3 year longevity; At least 915 days from 1st calving

Data from herds stopping in registration are deleted 2 years prior to last calving date observed (this restriction is not applied the last 2 years)

Data from cows after change in herds is not used	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	-	
Sire categories	One category, AI bulls of NRF.	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	ML-AM	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	H x Y of 1st calving (R) 
H x 5Y-period of 1st calving (F)
Year x Month of 1st calving (F)
Age at 1st calving (F) 	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	No	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Complete additive relationship with inbreeding. Missing pedigree grouped by year of birth.	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	No	
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	Trend validation	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Days survived	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	Complete additive relationship with inbreeding. Missing pedigree grouped by year of birth.	
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	No	
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 (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):	NOR (Norway)		
Main trait group:	Longevity		
Breed (repeat as necessary):	NRF (Norwegian Red)		

Trait	Definition	ITBa	h2b	genetic
varianceb	official proof
standardisation formulac	
1Y-longevity           			0.040	195	((EBV–16.5)/1)*1 + 0	
2Y-longevity			0.065	876	((EBV–30.7)/1)*1 + 0	
3Y-longevity		X	0.094	2159	((EBV – 40.3)/1)*1 + 0	
						
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.

HxY-variance	1Y-longevity	2Y-longevity	3Y-longevity	
1Y-longevity	50			
2Y-longevity	56	101		
3Y-longevity	58	114	193	

Heritability on diagonal, genetic correlations above, environmental correlations below
	1Y-longevity	2Y-longevity	3Y-longevity	
1Y-longevity	0.040	0.959	0.876	
2Y-longevity	0.753	0.065	0.973	
3Y-longevity	0.574	0.827	0.094	

Form GE	Appendix LO

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

Country (or countries):	NOR (Norway)	
Main trait group:	Longevity	
Breed(s):	NRF (Norwegian Red)	

Trait	h2	genetic
variance	official proof
standardisation formulaa	
Direct longevity:
(3-year longevity)	0.094	2159	Longevity = ((EBV–40.3)/1)*1 + 0	
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.