Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory
Announcements

Service-sire fertility evaluation

By Duane Norman (December 5, 2007)

After reviewing feedback from the industry to test files for the new service-sire fertility evaluation that is being developed at AIPL [Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory], we have decided to provide ERCR [estimated relative conception rates] for the January 2008 run using the data from the same States that have been used in recent runs. The Lab is currently addressing some questions raised by the NAAB [National Association of Animal Breeders] Fertility Committee in regard to our new evaluation. It is our intention to move ahead with the implementation of a new service-sire fertility evaluation in April 2008, as we believe the research completed has produced a fertility evaluation that is considerably more accurate than any currently available.

Availability of November 2007 interim summaries

By Leigh Walton (November 21, 2007)

In August 2007, USDA started calculating official genetic evaluations 3 times instead of 4 times per year as had been done since May 1997. This change was made in coordination with Interbull [International Bull Evaluation Service, Uppsala, Sweden], which implemented the new schedule with input from the 26 countries that supplied their national evaluations. The National Association of Animal Breeders (NAAB) requested an interim summary (progeny-test bull summary) be compiled based on lactation data from a reduced number of herds, specifically those having daughters of progeny-test bulls calving in recent months. Members of the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding (CDCB) and the dairy records processing centers gave NAAB approval for a test to be completed on a trial basis (September 2007 interim summary). The results were examined to determine whether they could serve a useful purpose; i.e., improve the effectiveness of the semen collection process in order to bank an inventory that will be available after a subsequent official run. Based on this examination, the CDCB suggests the process be done 3 times a year. The interim format-38 file contains summaries for all progeny-test bulls that have higher reliability than their evaluation in the last official run. Only identification fields and yield traits are included; other trait fields are zero. A draft Journal of Dairy Science paper is available upon request.

In addition to the format-38 file, the data are also available as XML and Excel documents.

Please note:
There are 69 bulls that do not have first-lactation averages, numbers of daughters and herds, etc., reported. Because the evaluations are of most interest, we decided to release them anyway; we are investigating this matter and will repost once resolved.