Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:08:48.909Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Heterogeneity of variance and dairy cattle breeding

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

P. M. Visscher  and
W. G. Hill
P. M. Visscher
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT
W. G. Hill
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT
Get access

Abstract

The effects of heterogeneity among herds in phenotypic variance (σ2p) and in heritability (h2) on the accuracy of evaluation of dairy sires and cows are discussed with reference to estimates from field data. It is argued that heterogeneity of σ2P can be accounted for by using a (Bayesian) regression procedure. While the same procedure could be used to correct for heterogeneity of h2, in most practical situations the sampling errors of the h2 estimates for individual herds are likely to be so large that regressed estimates of h2 will differ little from each other, so constant values can be assumed.

Keywords

dairy cattlegenetic varianceheritabilityselection
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , December 1992 , pp. 321 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1992

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

Boldman, K. G. and Freeman, A. E. 1990. Adjustment for heterogeneity of variances by herd production level in dairy cow and sire evaluation. Journal of Dairy Science 73: 503–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brotherstone, S. and Hill, W. G. 1986. Heterogeneity of variance amongst herds for milk production. Animal Production 42: 297–303.Google Scholar
Carabañlo, M. J., Wade, K. M., and Van Vleck, L. D. 1990. Genotype by environment interaction for milk and fat production across regions of the United States. Journal of Dairy Science 73: 173–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dong, M. C. and Mao, I. L. 1990. Heterogeneity of (co)variance and heritability in different levels of intraherd milk-production variance and of herd average. Journal of Dairy Science 73: 843–851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ducrocq, V., Boichard, D., Bonaiti, B., Barbat, A. and Briend, M. 1990. A pseudo-absorption strategy for solving animal-model equations for large data files. Journal of Dairy Science 73: 1945–1955.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrick, D. J. and Van Vleck, L. D. 1987. Aspects of selection for performance in several environments with heterogeneous variances. Journal of Animal Science 65: 409–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gianola, D., Foulley, J. L., Fernando, R. L., Henderson, C. R. and Weigel, K. A. 1992. Estimation of heterogeneous variances using empirical Bayes methods: theoretical considerations. Journal of Dairy Science In press.Google Scholar
Henderson, C. R., 1973. Sire evaluation and genetic trends. Proceedings of the animal breeding and genetics symposium honor of Dr. J. Lush, pp. 10–41. American Society of Animal Science, American Dairy Science Association, American Poultry Science Association, Champaign, Illinois.Google Scholar
Hill, W. G. 1984. On selection among groups with heterogeneous variance. Animal Production 39: 473–477.Google Scholar
Hill, W. G., Edwards, M. R., Ahmed, M.-K. A. and Thompson, R. 1983. Heritability of milk yield and composition at different levels and variability of production. Animal Production 36: 59–68.Google Scholar
Jones, L. P., and Goddard, M. E. 1990. Five years experience with the animal model for dairy cattle evaluations in Australia. Proceedings of the fourth world congress on genetics applied to livestock production, Vol. XIII, pp. 382–385.Google Scholar
Lofgren, D. L., Vinson, W. E., Pearson, R. E. and Powell, R. L. 1985. Heritability of milk yield at different herd means and variances for production. Journal of Dairy Science 68: 2737–2739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meuwissen, T. H. E. and Van der Werf, J. H. J. 1992. Impact of heterogeneous within herd variances on dairy cattle breeding schemes. Livestock Production Science In press.Google Scholar
Meyer, K. 1987. Estimates of variances due to sire × herd interactions and environmental covariances between paternal half-sibs for first lactation dairy production. Livestock Production Science 17: 95–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mirande, S. L. and Van Vleck, L. D. 1985. Trends in genetic and phenotypic variances for milk production. Journal of Dairy Science 68: 2278–2286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholas, F. W. and Smith, C. 1983. Increased rates of genetic changes in dairy cattle by embryo transfer and splitting. Animal Production 36: 341–353.Google Scholar
Patterson, H. D. and Thompson, R. 1971. Recovery of interblock-information when block sizes are unequal. Biometrika 58: 545–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Short, T. H., Blake, R. W., Quaas, R. L. and Van Vleck, L. D. 1990. Heterogeneous within-herd variance. 1. Genetic parameters for first and second lactation milk yields of grade Holstein cows. Journal of Dairy Science 73: 3312–3320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Vleck, L. D. 1987. Selection when traits have different genetic and phenotypic variances in different environments. Journal of Dairy Science 70: 337–344.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Vleck, L. D. and Dong, M. C. 1988. Genetic (co)variances for milk, fat, and protein yield in Holsteins using an animal model. Journal of Dairy Science 71: 3040–3046.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinson, W. E. 1987. Potential bias in genetic evaluations in from differences in variation within herds. Journal of Dairy Science 70: 2450–2455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Visscher, P. M. 1992. Power of likelihood ratio tests for heterogeneity of intraclass correlation and variance in balanced half-sib designs. Journal of Dairy Science 75: 1320–1330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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
Visscher, P. M., Thompson, R. and Hill, W. G. 1991. Estimation of genetic and environmental variances for fat yield in individual herds and an investigation into heterogeneity of variance between herds. Livestock Production Science 28: 273–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggans, G. R., Misztal, I. and Van Vleck, L. D. 1988. Implementation of an Animal Model for genetic evaluation of dairy cattle in the United States. Journal of Dairy Science 71: suppl. 2, pp. 54–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggans, G. R. and VanRaden, P. M. 1991. Method and effect of adjustment for heterogeneous variance. Journal of Dairy Science 74: 4350–4357.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed