Comparison of daughter's performance of progeny tested sires with pedigree selected sires in Holstein Friesian crossbred cattle

Abstract

The present study was conducted to compare the estimated breeding values of progeny tested sires and pedigree selected sires for test day milk yield of crossbred Holstein Friesian cattle. First lactation milk yield records (1,20,198) of 12,971 daughters sired by 267 sires were collected from INAPH database maintained by NDDB. Variance and covariance components for test-day milk yield (TDMY) were estimated by different random regression test day models (RRTDM), viz. Cubic B- Spline function, Quadratic B-Spline function, Legendre polynomial (LP) function and Wilmink function using Average Information Restricted Maximum Likelihood (AIREML). Considering various criteria for comparison of different orders of TDMs, LP of 6th order for TDMY was the best fitted model for further estimation of breeding values. The heritability estimates ranged from 0.15 to 0.39 for TDMY using Leg_2 model. The additive genetic correlations were higher than the phenotypic correlations among different TDs. The additive genetic correlations between test day yields varied from 0.73 to 0.99. The expected progeny difference (EPD) for TDMYcalculated based on dam’s yield for the top ten and bottom ten PS bulls was 2,662.5 kg; whereas, the actual progeny difference (APD) for these bulls was -28.47 kg. While, EPD for top 10 and bottom 10 PT bulls selected based on EBVs was 2,820.52 kg whereas the APD for PT bulls was 890.48 kg. The difference in expected and actual MY of progeny was higher in PS bulls as compared to PT bulls indicating that the pedigree information for EPDs had a poor association with APDs and sire superiority is not reflected in progeny’s actual performance. The rank correlation between ranks of all PS and PT bulls were very poor and non-significant. The bulls selected based on estimated breeding values will give faster genetic progress and decision to select replacement bulls based on breeding values instead of dam’s yield will have positive effect on genetic progress.

Keywords

• Breeding value
• Crossbred
• Holstein Friesian
• Pedigree selection
• Progeny testing