Authors : Ali Reza Fallah-Khair , Reza Seyed-Sharifi , Abdol Ahad Shad-Parvar and Morad Pasha Eskandari-Nasab
Abstract: Many of cows still exist in the herd at the time of genetic evaluation for herd life and hence, their herd life records are incomplete. On the other hand, it is possible to predict herd life of a cow using its production and reproduction records. The main aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of using predicted records in place of incomplete records in genetic evaluation of Holstein cows. For this aim, 3 sort of files were constructed: file 1 was composed of totally 55596 records of herd life that were collected by Center for Animal Breeding from 163 herds during 1993-2007. There were 32432 complete records of herd life and the rest were incomplete records. File 2 included only complete records (i.e., 32432 records). File 3 was like the file 1 except predicted records were in place of incomplete records. The results showed use of predicted records instead of incomplete records resulted to reduce phenotypic variance and increased heritability for herd life. The lesser coefficient of variance and higher heritability in consequence of using predicted records revealed that these records are more reliable than incomplete records for genetic evaluation of herd life.
Ali Reza Fallah-Khair , Reza Seyed-Sharifi , Abdol Ahad Shad-Parvar and Morad Pasha Eskandari-Nasab , 2009. Investigation of the Possibility of Using Predicted Herd Life Records in Genetic Evaluation of Iranian Holstein Cows. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 8: 1165-1168.