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Environmental effects on lactation curves included in a test-day model genetic evaluation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2008

H. Leclerc ,
D. Duclos ,
A. Barbat ,
T. Druet  and
V. Ducrocq
H. Leclerc*
Affiliation:
UR337, Station de Génétique Quantitative et Appliquée, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France
D. Duclos
Affiliation:
UR337, Station de Génétique Quantitative et Appliquée, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France
A. Barbat
Affiliation:
UR337, Station de Génétique Quantitative et Appliquée, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France
T. Druet
Affiliation:
UR337, Station de Génétique Quantitative et Appliquée, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France
V. Ducrocq
Affiliation:
UR337, Station de Génétique Quantitative et Appliquée, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 78352 Jouy-en-Josas, France
*
E-mail: helene.leclerc@jouy.inra.fr
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Abstract

A large number of environmental factors affect the daily milk production of a cow. Lactation curves included in the French test-day model are modelled as a function of days in milk with semi-parametric curves (splines). The proper modelling of environmental effects in the test-day analysis was investigated using test-day records collected from the first three lactations of French Montbéliarde cows from 1988 to 2005. Four lactation-curve effects describing calving month, length of dry period, age at calving and gestation defined within parity-class were fitted. The shape of lactation curves did not depend on year of calving, which can be modelled as a constant over the whole lactation. To reduce computational requirements and time, data were pre-adjusted in a first step for fixed effects with no year interaction, and then used for genetic evaluation. Correlations for each lactation between 305-day estimates of genetic and permanent environment effects computed using pre-adjustment factors obtained at a 4-year interval were virtually one. The use of a two-step procedure had a very limited impact on the estimates of genetic and permanent environment effects. The minimum correlations with values estimated with a one-step procedure were 0.9984 and 0.9974, respectively. The knowledge of systematic environmental effects affecting the cow daily yield through lactation curves offers interesting perspectives to predict future daily milk production.

Keywords

dairy cowsenvironmental factorsgenetic evaluationlactation curvetest-day model
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 2 , Issue 3 , March 2008 , pp. 344 - 353
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2008

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