Profitability of a beef operation is determined by the proportion of cows attaining pregnancy early in the breeding season and those that are pregnant at the end of breeding season. Many factors, including temperament, contribute to those reproductive parameters. The objective of this study was to evaluate effects of temperament on reproductive performance of beef cows. In Experiment 1, Angus a...

AIM The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of non-genetic factors on reproduction traits viz. age at first semen freezing and age at first semen use of breeding bulls in Sahiwal bulls by fitting least-squares analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The information on reproduction traits of 43 Sahiwal breeding bulls belonging to 8 sets of Sahiwal breeding program at Indian Council of A...

A reduced probability of finding mates at low densities is a frequently hypothesized mechanism for a component Allee effect. At low densities dispersers are less likely to find mates and establish new breeding units. However, many mathematical models for an Allee effect do not make a distinction between breeding group establishment and subsequent population growth. Our objective is to derive a ...

A multitrait selection index (I T ) for Zimbabwean Jersey cattle was constructed. The breeding objective was defined in terms of production and functionality traits. The production component of the index included milk yield (M), butterfat yield (F), protein yield (P), butterfat percent (F%), and protein percent (P%), while the functional component included the somatic cell count (SCC). The inde...

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to investigate the species and breeding density of acaroid mites in stored products in China. METHODS We tentatively harvested the samples from the products stored in warehouses, commercial stores and civilian houses, and the products. RESULTS The results suggested the mites varied a lot in species regarding their ecological habitus and habitat. Still, the...

Genotype by environment (GxE) interaction can reduce genetic gain because there is often insufficient information for accurate selection in each environment. Genomic selection may be a useful method to reduce the impact of GxE interaction as measurement in different environments may be propagated over more selection candidates. We compared the value of testing the performance of relatives and/o...

Proper design of a breeding program has been an issue of primary concern in much animal breeding research during the last decade. Data Mining (DM) is a powerful paradigm for nding patterns that can be used to predict the productivity of progeny given information about their sire, dam and the environment. The more accurate the discovered patterns, the more genetic gain one can achieve in a breed...

The breeding of crocodilians is still a recent activity in Brazil. Its peak was in the 1990's, but it has gaps in its production, as there are no norms for the commercial breeding of these animals in captivity. However, its economic potential is great, and the search for ecological balance and viability of commercial production has become a challenge among farmers of this activity. Therefor, th...