Status as of: 2020-10-01

Form GE

DESCRIPTION OF NATIONAL GENETIC EVALUATION SYSTEMS

Country (or countries)	ZAF	
Main trait group1
NOTE! Only one trait group per form!	
Conformation	
Breed(s)	Holstein	
Trait definition(s) and unit(s) of measurement2
Attach an appendix if needed	Rump Height, Body Depth, Angularity, Rump Angle, Rump Width, Rear Legs Side View, Foot Angle, Fore Udder Attachment, Rear Udder Height, Median Ligament, Udder Depth, Front Teat Placement, Front Teat Length, Chest Width, Rear Legs Rear View, Rear Udder Width, Rear Teat Placement. Linear Scoring on scale of 1 – 9.	
Method of measuring and collecting data	Trained classifiers collect data according to set protocol and data are captured on Holstein Society’s database.	
Time period for data inclusion	Cows classified since 1978. Pedigree : no restriction	
Age groups (e.g. parities) included	Only classifications done during first lactations included.	
Other criteria (data edits) for inclusion of records	Age at calving must be between 17 and 39 months, and age at classification between 20 to 45 months of age	
Criteria for extension of records (if applicable)	N.a.	
Sire categories	None	
Environmental effects3, pre-adjustments 	None	
Method (model) of genetic evaluation3	MT – SL – BLUP – AM 	
Environmental effects3 in the genetic evaluation model	Age at calving, DIM, Age at classification
Herd x Classification Date x Classifier	
Adjustment for heterogeneous variance in evaluation model	None	
Use of genetic groups and relationships	Relationship matrix modified by genetic groups based on missing pedigree. Groups based on country of origin, year of birth and selection path	
Blending of foreign/Interbull information in evaluation	Publish MACE EBVs for foreign sires are blended with national EBVs until reliability based on SA daughters are 80%.	
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	Data checks and validation on quality before genetic evaluations based on outlier detection, duplicates and pedigree checks. Analysis based on within bull yearly DYDs (Interbull Method 2). Correlate previous EBVs with latest and follow up large deviations.	
Expression of genetic evaluations
If standardised (e.g. RBV), give standardisation formula in the appendix	Standardised EBVs 	
Definition of genetic reference base
Next base change	2015 Year of Birth

2025 to 2020	
Calculation of reliability	PEVs	
Criteria for official publication of evaluations	Cows should be measured. Sires should have 20 daughters in 10 herds.	
Number of evaluations / publications per year	Three evaluations : Feb, June and October	
Use in total merit index4	HSI = 0.17 BF(kg) + 0.21 Prot(kg) + 0.08 Efficiency + 0.08 Conformation – 0.01 ANG + 0.11 Udder + 0.06 F&L + 0.10 Herd Life – 0.05 SCS – 0.13 ICP	
Anticipated changes in the near future	None	
Key reference on methodology applied	Mistztal, I., et al., 1992. J. Dairy Sci. 75 : 544.
Boichard, D., et al., 1995. J. Dairy Sci. 78 : 431- 437.
Lidauer et al., 2015. Technical Reference Guides for Mix99.	
Key organisation: name, address, phone, fax, e-mail, web site	SA Stud Book and Livestock Improvement Association
PO Box 270, Bloemfontein, South Africa, 9300
Tel : +27-51-4100900 Fax : +27-51-4473964
Japie@studbook.co.za     Bernice@studbook.co.za
http://www.studbook.co.za	
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 CO

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

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

Trait	Definition	h2a	genetic
variancea	official proof
standardisation formulab	
Stature		0.43	0.291	Standardised EBV=((EBV/δA)	
Chest Width		0.13	0.081	Expressed the same as above for all traits	
Body Depth		0.20	0.116		
Angularity		0.19	0.134		
Rump Angle		0.23	0.202		
Rump Width		0.15	0.079		
Rear Leg Set		0.09	0.049		
Rear Leg Rear View		0.12	0.075		
Foot Angle		0.09	0.059		
Fore Udder		0.17	0.156		
Rear Udder Height		0.17	0.102		
Udder Support		0.10	0.092		
Udder Depth		0.17	0.143		
Front Teat Placement		0.24	0.158		
Teat Length		0.31	0.311		
Rear Teat Placement		0.17	0.157		
Overall Conformation Score					
Overall Udder Score					
Overall Feet & Leg 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.

GENETIC CORRELATIONS

 
	RH	CW	BD	ANG	RA	RW	RLS	FA	RLR	FUA	RUH	RUW	ML	UD	FTP	RTP	FTL	
RH	0.43	0.26	0.54	0.59	0.09	0.57	-0.06	0.28	0.10	0.25	0.43	0.33	0.32	0.29	0.21	0.32	0.01	
CW		0.13	0.61	-0.52	0.10	0.58	-0.46	0.38	0.46	0.10	-0.12	-0.03	-0.09	0.03	0.01	-0.24	0.06	
BD			0.20	0.19	-0.12	0.60	-0.11	0.13	0.26	0.19	0.18	0.36	0.17	-0.08	0.18	0.06	0.06	
ANG				0.19	-0.09	0.07	0.38	-0.07	-0.23	0.16	0.51	0.51	0.32	0.06	0.23	0.55	-0.05	
RA					0.23	-0.13	-0.02	-0.09	-0.13	0.00	0.04	-0.03	0.07	0.05	0.00	0.14	-0.00	
RW						0.15	-0.21	0.29	0.30	0.23	0.28	0.28	0.13	0.09	0.13	-0.09	0.07	
RLS							0.09	-0.76	-0.51	-0.01	-0.04	-0.02	-0.02	-0.06	0.03	0.07	-0.19	
FA								0.09	0.63	0.10	0.16	0.17	0.12	0.19	0.11	0.24	0.02	
RLR									0.12	0.10	0.27	0.47	0.10	-0.09	0.14	-0.01	0.06	
FUA										0.17	0.50	-0.03	0.44	0.69	0.34	0.12	-0.06	
RUH											0.17	0.59	0.41	0.32	0.28	0.42	-0.02	
RUW												0.11	0.22	-0.41	0.23	0.46	-0.16	
ML													0.10	0.44	0.54	0.70	-0.15	
UD														0.17	0.23	0.12	-0.09	
FTP															0.24	0.57	-0.26	
RTP																0.17	-0.37	
FTL																	0.31