A26-Umcaster Farming, Saturday, July 1,1989
New Cow
(Continued froqi Pago A 1)
Under the MCC system that
started in 1975, herdmates were
compared with daughters of a bull.
These herdmates were determined
on a five-month season-the fresh
ing month, two months before and
two months after the freshing
month. The new cow model will
use six two month seasons so that
herdmates will all start lactations
much closer together for the proof.
In addition, grade animals will be
treated separately from registered
animals in the herd.
Offspring of the animal and her
sisters will also be included in the
cow model. This is possible only
because of the increased capability
of large computers in recent years.
In the Holstein breed alone, you
have 23 million simultaneous equ
ations available to get the solution
you need. The system is so comlex
that you could not accomplish the
cow model until recently.
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Model
Specht doesn’t think you will
see a lot of change in bull rankings,
especially ip those animals that
have been proven through the bull
stud systems where the daughters
of a bull are recorded from a large
number of different herds.
While Dick Barth, executive
director of Pennsylvania DHIA,
said they use the information given
to them, the cow model is undoub
tedly a step in the right direction.
"I’ve been told by animal geneti
cists that it will be a significant
improvement” Barth said. “The
records will be more authentic and
will more truly reflect the genetic
background of the pedigrees.”
Specht agrees. “Improvements
have been made over the years as
new programs were put into
place,” he said. “From 1962 to
1974 we had a herdmate system
that had a lot of loopholes. And
before that, from 1935 on, wehada
daughter/dam system that got a
proof if we had five daughers from
iT ZIP
five dams. Now we are not sure of
a' proof if we have hundreds and
hundreds of records. But each
advancement has improved our
record system,” Specht said.
In a National DHIA handbook,
written by G.R. Wiggans and P.M.
Vanßaden from the Ag Research
Service, USDA, Beltsville, MD,
the mathematical description of
the model includes: 1, identifica
tion of the factors that contribute to
the amount of milk produced in a
particular lactation; 2, an indica
tion of how much of the variation
betweeen records is contributed by
each factor, and 3, an indication of
how closely factors are related to
each other. The model is the blue
print for the evaluations. It deter
mines how the data will be trans
lated into rankings.
The USDA-DHIA cow model
describes a cow’s lactation record
as the sum of the effects of her
management group, genetic merit,
permanent environment, interac
tion of her herd and sire and unex
plained residual. The new model
does not include effects of age,
length of lactation and number of
Storing Higher-Moisture
The period of rainfall
has seriously delayed harvesting
of hay-crop forages. Not all hay
crop forage needs to be wilted to
40-50% moisture, as-often done
under more ideal conditions.
Generally, wilting to only
60-68% moisture will keep seep
age problems at a minimum in
upright silos and reduce storage
josses. At these moisture levels, a
good chemical
enzyme-type additfr^jnaybeused
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milkings per day, because lacta
tion records are adjusted for these
factors prior to genetic evaluation.
Some of the information gener
ated from the cow model includes;
predicted transmitting ability;
average standardized yield, aver
aged over lactations for cows and
over daughters for bulls; predicted
producting ability that factors in
predictions of a cow’s perfor
mance in future'lactations, predic
tions of breeding value and perma
nent environmental and herd-sire
interaction effects.
In addition, the cow model
includes: yield deviation adjusted
for management groups and
daughter yield; parent average;
reliability and an economic index
that combines evaluations for milk
and components weighted by pro
duct value calculated for modified
contemporary comparision.
The animal model allows simul
taneous genetic evaluation of bulls
and cows with all relationships
included. Previously computing
constraints limited this approach to
evaluation within herd.
Computers can aid greatly in
breeding decisions, but subjective
judgment on credibility of original
data .still is required. For data that
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to reduce the risk of abnormal fer
mentation or smelly silage.
Direct-cut forage also may be
ensiled. However, a good, feed
additive such as groundgrain soy*
hulls, dried beet pulp or other suit
able by-product ingredients '
should be added at about ISO to
200 lb. per ton of forage to reduce
seepage and help in preservation.
This also can increase the energy
content of the silage as it is fed
out.
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follows the assumptions of the
model, evaluations computed with
the cow model offer the best pre
dictions of future performance.
According to the most recent
ABS Breeders Journal, the Nation
al Holstein Association will imple
ment a new formula for Total Per
formance Index (TPI) which will
include an udder composite score
for the new 1989 sire summary.
This new method of calculation
will have a ratio of £2:1:1 for fat
pounds, protein type
(PDT), and udder composite score,
respectively. The new formula will
replace the current TPI formula of
2:2:1 for fat pounds protein pounds
and PDT. The TPI change will
reduce emphasis on production
from 80 percent to 67 percent
while emphasis on type increases
from 20 percent to 33 percent
The udder composite score is
relatively new and may be unfa
miliar to many dairy prodeucers.
Essentially, udder composite
scores allow easier comparison of
bulls for total udder improvement
Udder traits included in the com
posite score are: depth, front teat
placement cleft, rear udder height
rear udder width and fore udder
attachment
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