Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:38:20.551Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of cow families on production traits in dairy cattle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

T. Roughsedge ,
P. M. Visscher  and
S. Brotherstone
T. Roughsedge*
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK
P. M. Visscher
Affiliation:
Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
S. Brotherstone
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JT, UK
*
†Present address: Scottish Agricultural College, Animal Biology Division, Penicuik EH26 0PH, UK.
Get access

Abstract

The components of phenotypic variance attributable to maternal lineage for production traits of the UK Holstein Friesian dairy population were estimated. First lactation production records of 55 230 cows calving between 1996-1998 in the UK Holstein Friesian population were used in the analysis. Maternal pedigree records were traced back to 1960 to establish maternal lineages. The tracing resulted in 36 320 cows being assigned to 11 786 cow families with more than one cow per maternal lineage. Using test day records it was possible to explore aspects of the lactation curve in terms of persistency and different periods of production. The traits analysed were 305-day milk yield and composition traits, the first three milk yield tests of lactation and two measures of persistency. A contemporary record design was used to minimize pair-wise additive direct genetic relationships between cows within a maternal lineage and to remove both the effect of heterogeneous variance over time and the complications of permanent environment effects. No significant component of variance attributable to maternal lineage was found for yield traits. When data were restricted to maternal lineages with five or more records, persistency, as a ratio of cumulative yield in the last third to that in the first third of a 300-day lactation, was estimated to have a 4·4% component due to maternal lineage variance significant at the 5% level. The study also investigated the preferential treatment of cow families. Some evidence of maternal lineage × herd interaction was found.

Keywords

dairy cowsfamiliesheritabilitypreferential treatment
Type
Breeding and genetics
Information
Animal Science , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , August 2000 , pp. 49 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albuquerque, L. G., Keown, J. F. and Van Vleck, L. D. 1998. Variances of direct genetic effects, maternal genetic effects, and cytoplasmic inheritance effects for milk yield, fat yield, and fat percentage. Journal of Dairy Science 81: 544–549.Google Scholar
Anderson, S., de Bruijn, M. H. L., Coulson, A. R., Eperon, I. C., Sanger, F. and Young, I. G. 1982. Complete sequence of bovine mitochondrial DNA. Conserved features of the mammalian mitochondrial genome. Journal of Molecular Biology 156: 683–717.Google Scholar
Beavis, W. D., Pollak, E. and Frey, K. J. 1987. A theoretical model for quantitatively inherited traits influenced by nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 74: 571–578.Google Scholar
Boettcher, P. J. and Gibson, J. P. 1997. Estimation of variance of maternal lineage effects among Canadian Holsteins. Journal of Dairy Science 80: 2167–2176.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boettcher, P. J., Kuhn, M. T. and Freeman, A. E. 1996. Impacts of cytoplasmic inheritance on genetic evaluations. Journal of Dairy Science 79: 663–675.Google Scholar
Dekkers, J. C. M., Ten Hag, J. H. and Weersink, A. 1998. Economic aspects of persistency of lactation in dairy cattle. Livestock Production Science 53: 237–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groeneveld, E. 1996. REML VCE a multivariate multi model restricted maximum likelihood (co)variance component estimation package version 3·2 user’s guide. Federal Research Center of Agriculture, Mariensee, Germany.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, C. A., Newbold, J. E., Potter, S. S. and Edgell, M. H. 1974. Maternal inheritance of mammalian mitochondrial DNA. Nature 251: 536–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olori, V. E., Brotherstone, S., Hill, W. G. and McGuirk, B. J. 1999. Fit of standard models to the lactation curve to weekly records of milk production of cows in a single herd. Livestock Production Science 58: 55–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roughsedge, T., Brotherstone, S. and Visscher, P. M. 1998. Lack of evidence for cytoplasmic inheritance for milk production traits at the Langhill dairy herd. Proceedings of the sixth world congress on genetics applied to livestock production, Armidale, vol. 23, pp. 351–354.Google Scholar
Roughsedge, T., Brotherstone, S. and Visscher, P. M. 1999. Estimation of variance of maternal lineage effects at the Langhill dairy herd. Animal Science 68: 79–86.Google Scholar
Roughsedge, T., Brotherstone, S. and Visscher, P. M. 2000. Effects of cow families on type traits in dairy cattle. Animal Science 70: 391–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schnitzenlehner, S. and Essl, A. 1999. Field data analysis of cytoplasmic inheritance of dairy and fitness-related traits in cattle. Animal Science 68: 459–466.Google Scholar
Seykora, A. J. and McDaniel, B. T. 1983. Heritabilities and correlations of lactation yields and fertility for Holsteins. Journal of Dairy Science 66: 1486–1493.Google Scholar
Sokal, R. R. and Rohlf, F. J. 1995. Biometry: the principles and practise of statistics in biological research, third edition. W. H. Freeman and Co., New York.Google Scholar
Sölkner, J. and Fuchs, W. 1987. A comparison of different measures of persistency with special respect to variation of test-day milk yields. Livestock Production Science 16: 305–319.Google Scholar
Southwood, O. I., Kennedy, B. W., Meyer, K. and Gibson, J. P. 1989. Estimation of additive maternal and cytoplasmic genetic variances in animal-models. Journal of Dairy Science 72: 3006–3012.Google Scholar
Stram, D. O. and Lee, J. W. 1994. Variance-components testing in the longitudinal mixed effects model. Biometrics 50: 1171–1177.Google Scholar
Visscher, P. M. and Thompson, R. 1992. Comparisons between genetic variances estimated from different types of relatives in dairy cattle. Animal Production 55: 315–320.Google Scholar
White, I. M. S., Thompson, R. and Brotherstone, S. 1999. Genetic and environmental smoothing of lactation curves with cubic splines. Journal of Dairy Science 82: 632–638.Google Scholar
Wilmink, J. M. B. 1987. Adjustment of test-day milk, fat and protein yield for age, season and stage of lactation. Livestock Production Science 16: 335–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar