GENETIC EVALUATION

Cards (29)

  • Heredity – transfer of genetic characteristics from parents to offspring by the process of fertilization.
  • Progeny – offspring; descendant or the descendants of a person, animal, or plant.
  • Estimated Breeding Value – science-based, industry-tested measurements of heritable traits that can be tracked and measured.
  • Estimated Breeding Value – measure of genetic merits that can be passed to progenies.
  • Expected Progeny Difference – prediction of how future progeny of each animal are expected to perform relative to the progeny of other animals listed in the database.
  • Heritability - measures the relative importance of hereditary and environmental influences on the development of a specific quantitative trait.
  • Heritability – measure of the degree (0 to 100%) to which offspring resemble their parents for a specific trait.
  • Heritability – partial description of one trait in one group of animals at some particular time.
  • Heritability – amount of phenotypic (observable) variation in a population that is attributable to individual genetic differences.
  • Heritability:
    H2 = Vg /Vg + Ve
  • Heritability or h2: tells the breeder how much confidence to place in the phenotypic performance of an animal when choosing parents of the next generation.
  • For highly heritable traits where h2 exceeds 0.40, the animal's phenotype is a good indicator of genetic merit or breeding value.
  • For lowly heritable traits, where h2 is below 0.15, an animal's performance is much less useful in identifying the individuals with the best genes for the trait
  • Expected Progeny Difference – Gold Standard for evaluation of genetic merit for a variety of important traits.
  • Expected Progeny Difference – expressed as differences.
  • Expected Progeny Difference – units are industry standards for each trait (kgs, inches, percent, etc.).
  • Expected Progeny Difference – can be expressed as positive or negative.
  • Expected Progeny Difference – useful only when comparing animals.
  • Accuracy – reliability that can be placed on the EPD.
  • Accuracy – ranges from .00 to 1.00
  • Accuracy – accuracy close to 1.0 indicates higher reliability.
  • Economically relevant traits - traits that directly influence either a cost or an income from beef production.
  • Economically relevant traits:
    Probability of calving ease
    Sale weight
    Stayability
    Heifer pregnancy rate
  • Indicator traits - traits not directly related to a cost or income from beef production.
  • Indicator traits:
    Birth weight
    Weaning weight
    Yearling weight
    Calving records, interval
    Scrotal circumference
  • Expected Progeny Difference - denote the breeding value of an individual animal's progeny.
  • Estimated Breeding Value - denote the value of the individual animal.
  • EPD is equal to half of an animal's EBV as half of an animal's genes are passed to the next generation.
  • EPD = EBV/2
    EPD = ½ EBV