Interaction Between Milk Yield of Holstein Cows in Mexico and the United States

Abstract

Genotype by environment interaction for milk yield was investigated by analyzing 55,162 mature equivalent, first lactation records of daughters from 1339 Holstein sires in Mexico and 499,401 daughters from 663 Holstein sires in the northeastern US. There were 474 US sires in common. Herd-year standard deviation was used to define non-overlapping high (> or = 1600 kg) and low (< or = 1300 kg) Mexican environments and a low (< or = 1025 kg) US environment. Variance components across Mexican environments were about 40% less than those of the US environment. Genetic correlation coefficients between milk yield in various Mexican environments and all US environments ranged from 0.60 to 0.71 and were different from unity (P < 0.001). Genetic correlation coefficients with low environment in the US ranged between 0.69 and 0.93; the largest correlation was between the low US and high Mexico environments. Both reductions in the size of genetic variance in Mexican environments relative to the US and genetic correlation coefficients less than unity were indicative of genotype by environment interaction. A significant rank change in estimated breeding values (EBV) of sires in Mexican environments relative to the US was another indicator of genotype of EBV of a sire estimated from daughters performances in low and high environments in Mexico were 0.46 and 0.62 against EBV of sires estimated from all data in the US. Against EBV estimated from the low environment in the US they were 0.57 and 0.83. The US low environment was a better predictor of performance in Mexican environments.

Genotype by feeding system interaction in the genetic evaluation of Jersey cattle for milk yield

“…The additive genetic variance from confinement was 4.1 times higher than that from grazing and the residual variance was only 2.3 times higher. This agrees with the reported phenotypic means from confinement and grazing of our study (Table 1) and with studies that have shown less genetic variation in lower production herds (Cromie et al, 1998;Cienfuegos-Rivas et al, 1999;Kearney et al, 2004). Boettcher et al (2003) estimated higher heritability using herds in confinement than in grazing, and suggested that genetic differences among animals were better expressed in herds under confinement.…”

Characterisation of terminal sire sheep farm systems, based on a range of environmental factors: a case study in the context of genotype by environment interactions using Charollais lambs

“…In sheep breeding, providing there are suitable levels of genetic linkage between flocks, BLUP allows estimated breeding values (EBVs) to be expressed relative to a common base, from which direct comparisons can be made across flocks. However, a problem that farmers can encounter is that having selected to use an individual animal based on their predicted performance, they obtain somewhat unexpected and inconsistent results when they are used in another location (Cienfuegos-Rivas et al, 1999).…”

Effect of Environmental Conditions in Milk Production Under Small-Scale and Semi-Extensive Conditions in Kosovo

“…Introduction of highly productive breeds of dairy cattle into an extensive environment will often lead to reduced milk production, as well as an increased risk of reproductive and metabolic disorders (Calus & Veerkamp, 2003;Cienfugos-Rivas et al, 1999;Horan et al, 2005). Thus, breeds well adapted to the environmental conditions in Western Europe may be poorly suited to the more extensive Kosovo environment.…”