Genetic evaluation for the beef industry in Australia
H-U. Graser A B , B. Tier A , D. J. Johnston A and S. A. Barwick AA Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (a joint venture of NSW Department of Primary Industries and The University of New England), The University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: hgraser@une.edu.au
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 45(8) 913-921 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA05075
Submitted: 15 March 2005 Accepted: 3 June 2005 Published: 26 August 2005
Abstract
Genetic evaluation for beef cattle in Australia has been performed using an animal model with best linear unbiased prediction since 1984. The evaluation procedures have evolved from simple to more complex models and from few to a large number of traits, including traits for reproduction, growth and carcass characteristics. This paper describes in detail the current beef cattle genetic evaluation system ‘BREEDPLAN’ used for the Australian beef cattle industry, the traits analysed and underlying models, and presents a short overview of the challenges and planned developments of coming years.
Additional keywords: carcass, growth, phenotypes, reproduction, selection indexes.
Acknowledgments
Research and development for beef cattle genetic evaluation in Australia has been supported by Meat and Livestock Australia and its predecessors, using funds collected from beef cattle producers, and by NSW Department of Primary Industries and The University of New England. These contributions, and the dedicated pedigree and performance recording effort of more than 1500 beef cattle breeders, are greatly appreciated.
Arthur PF,
Archer JA,
Johnston DJ,
Herd RM,
Richardson EC, Parnell PF
(2001) Genetic and phenotypic variances and covariance components for feed intake, feed efficiency and other postweaning traits in Angus cattle. Journal of Animal Science 70, 2805–2811.
Barwick SA,
Fuchs W,
Davis GP, Hammond K
(1992) A breeding objective and selection index package for use with BREEDPLAN. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 10, 565–568.
Barwick SA, Henzell AL
(2005) Development successes and issues for the future in deriving and applying selection indexes for beef breeding. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture , 923–933.
Barwick SA,
Henzell AL,
Upton WH, Graser H-U
(2001) ‘BreedObject on the web’: a catalyst for wider adoption of selection indexes in the beef industry. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 14, 453–456.
Bradfield MJ,
Graser H-U, Johnston DJ
(1997) Investigation of genotype × production environment interaction for weaning weight in the Santa Gertrudis breed in Australia. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 48, 1–5.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Burrow HM, Corbet NJ
(2000) Genetic and environmental factors affecting temperament of zebu and zebu-derived beef cattle grazed at pasture in the tropics. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 51, 155–162.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Graser H-U,
Goddard ME, Allen J
(1995) Better genetic technology for the beef industry. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 11, 56–64.
Graser H-U, Hammond K
(1985) Mixed model procedures for the Australian beef industry. I. Multiple-trait model for estimation of breeding values for 200-day and final weights of cattle. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 36, 527–535.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Graser H-U,
Johnston DJ, Tier B
(1999) Sire × herd interaction effect in BREEDPLAN. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 13, 197–198.
Graser H-U, Tier B
(1997) Applying the concept of number of effective progeny to approximate accuracies of predictions derived from multiple trait analyses. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 12, 547–551.
Hoeschele I,
Tier B, Graser H-U
(1995) Multiple trait analysis including one categorical, polychotomous trait and several continuous traits with missing data and unequal models. Journal of Animal Science 73, 1609–1627.
| PubMed |
Howarth JM, Johnston DJ
(1995) Age of dam adjustment factors for weight traits. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 11, 670–673.
Johnston DJ, Bunter KL
(1996) Days to calving in Angus cattle: genetic and environmental effects, and covariances with other traits. Livestock Production Science 45, 13–22.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Johnston DJ,
Chandler H, Graser H-U
(1996) Genetic parameters for cow weight and condition score in Angus, Hereford and Poll Hereford cattle. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 47, 1251–1260.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Johnston DJ,
Graser H-U,
Moore KL, Graham JF
(2003a) BREEDPLAN multi-breed EBVs for growth traits in Angus, Hereford, Simmental and Limousin Breeds. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 15, 269–272.
Johnston DJ,
Herd RM,
Kadel MJ,
Graser H-U,
Arthur PF, Archer JA
(2002) Evidence of IGF-I as a genetic predictor of feed efficiency traits in beef cattle. Proceedings of the 7th World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production 31, 257–260.
Johnston DJ,
Reverter A,
Burrow HM,
Oddy VH, Robinson DL
(2003b) Genetic and phenotypic characterisation of animal, carcass and meat quality traits from temperate and tropically adapted beef breeds. 1. Animal measures. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 54, 107–118.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Johnston DJ,
Tier B,
Graser H-U, Girard C
(1999) Presenting BREEDPLAN Version 4.1. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 13, 193–196.
Kerr RJ,
Hammond K, Kinghorn BP
(1994) Effects of multiple-sire matings on genetic evaluations, selection and rates of inbreeding. Livestock Production Science 38, 161–168.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
McClintock AE,
Hammond K,
Taylor JF,
Graser H-U, Aisbett CW
(1982) A proposed system for reporting the breeding merit of recorded livestock. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 3, 276–278.
Meyer K
(1995) Estimates of genetic parameters and breeding values for New Zealand and Australian Angus cattle. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 46, 1219–1229.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Meyer K
(1997) Estimates of genetic parameters for weaning weight of beef cattle accounting for direct-maternal environmental covariances. Livestock Production Science 52, 187–199.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Meyer K
(1999) Estimates of the genetic parameters for scan measurements in Australian Brahmans and Santa Gertrudis adjusting for age versus adjusting for weight at scanning. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 13, 239–242.
Meyer K
(2001) Age-dependent changes in estimates of genetic parameters for weights of Hereford Cattle. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 14, 147–150.
Meyer K
(2003) Estimates of variances due to sire × herd effects for weights of Hereford cattle. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 15, 131–134.
Meyer K, Graser H-U
(1999) Estimation of parameters for scan records of Australian beef cattle treating records from males and females as different traits. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 13, 385–388.
Meyer K,
Hammond K,
Parnell PF,
Mackinnon MJ, Sivarajasingam S
(1990) Estimates of heritability and repeatability of reproductive traits in Australian beef cattle. Livestock Production Science 25, 15–30.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Meyer K,
Johnston DJ, Graser H-U
(2004) Estimates of the complete genetic covariance matrix for traits in multi-trait genetic evaluation of Australian Hereford cattle. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 55, 195–210.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Moore KL,
Johnston DJ, Graser H-U
(2005) Genetic and phenotypic relationships between insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and net feed intake, fat, and growth traits in Angus beef cattle. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56, 211–218.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Nicol DC,
Graser H-U,
Tier B, Hammond K
(1985) BREEDPLAN — a new within-herd evaluation system for the National Beef Recording Scheme. Proceedings of the Australian Association for Animal Breeding and Genetics 5, 151–153.
Notter D,
Tier B, Meyer K
(1992) Sire × herd interactions for weaning weight in beef cattle. Journal of Animal Science 70, 2359–2365.
| PubMed |
Perry D,
Shorthose WR,
Ferguson DM, Thompson JM
(2001) Methods used in the CRC program for the determination of carcass yield and beef quality. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 41, 953–957.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Quaas RL, Pollak EJ
(1980) Mixed model methodology for farm and ranch beef cattle testing programs. Journal of Animal Science 51, 1277–1287.
Reverter A,
Johnston DJ,
Ferguson DM,
Perry D,
Goddard ME,
Burrow HM,
Oddy VH,
Thompson JM, Bindon BM
(2003) Genetic and phenotypic characterisation of animal, carcass and meat quality traits from temperate and tropically adapted beef breeds. 4. Correlations among animal, abattoir carcass and meat quality traits. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 54, 149–158.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Reverter A,
Johnston DJ,
Graser H-U,
Wolcott ML, Upton WH
(2000) Genetic analyses of live-animal ultrasound and abattoir carcass traits in Australian Angus and Hereford cattle. Journal of Animal Science 78, 1786–1795.
| PubMed |
Reverter A,
Tier B,
Johnston DJ, Graser H-U
(1997) Assessing the efficiency of multiplicative mixed model equations to account for heterogeneous variances across herds in carcass scan traits from beef cattle. Journal of Animal Science 75, 1477–1485.
| PubMed |
Robinson DL
(1996a) Estimation and interpretation of direct and maternal genetic parameters for weights of Australian Angus cattle. Livestock Production Science 45, 1–11.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Robinson DL
(1996b) Models which might explain negative correlations between direct and maternal genetic effects. Livestock Production Science 45, 111–122.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Robinson DL, Johnston DJ
(2003) Days to calving in artificially inseminated cattle. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 15, 55–58.
Schneeberger M,
Barwick SA,
Crow GH, Hammond K
(1992) Economic indices using breeding values predicted by BLUP. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 109, 180–187.
Tier B, Graser H-U
(1991) Predicting breeding values using an implicit representation of the mixed model equations for a multiple trait animal model. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics 108, 81–88.
Tier B, Graser H-U
(1992) A computationally efficient transformation of the mixed model equations for multiple trait models. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 10, 524–526.
Tier B, Graser H-U
(1995) A comparison of fixed effects of ease of calving among three breeds of cattle in Australia. Proceedings of the Australian Association of Animal Breeding and Genetics 11, 610–614.
Tier B,
Johnston DJ,
Graser H-U, Goddard ME
(1999) Incorporating foreign estimated breeding values into BREEDPLAN. Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics 13, 199–202.
Tsuruta S,
Misztal I, Strandan I
(2001) Use of the preconditioned conjugate gradient algorithm as a generic solver for mixed-model equations in animal breeding applications. Journal of Animal Science 79, 1166–1172.
| PubMed |
Westell RA,
Quaas RL, Van Vleck LD
(1988) Genetic groups in an animal model. Journal of Dairy Science 71, 1310–1318.
Upton WH,
Burrow HM,
Dundon A,
Robinson DL, Farrell EB
(2001) CRC breeding program design, measurements and database: methods that underpin CRC research results. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 41, 943–952.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
