Dairy producers now have two new traits of significant economic value to consider in their breeding programs.
Feed Saved in Holsteins, and Heifer Livability in Holsteins and Jerseys, debuted with the December 1 evaluations launched by the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding.
Feed Saved and Heifer Livability are now available as individual traits. It is expected the traits will be incorporated into the Net Merit genetic index as early as April 2021.
Genomic evaluations are now available for six type traits that previously had only traditional Predicted Transmitting Abilities (PTAs). This update affected various breeds, depending on the trait, with genomic evaluations now available for Rear Udder Width, Body Depth, Feet/Leg Score, Milking Speed, Rear Teat Placement and Rear Teat Placement Side View. Find specific details here.
In conjunction to the new publication of these genomic traits, the genomic processing was reorganized to share a common list of 21 type traits for all breeds, which has simplified management of type evaluations.
Other updates detailed in the December 2020 Changes to Evaluation System:
- Updates in the inbreeding calculation procedure Breed code update for EFI and heterosis purposes in monthly genomic runs
- Update to blend weights in multi-breed evaluations for animals with phenotypic information
- BBR stability update
- Updates in the genetic correlations used in evaluations