Variance and covariance components were estimated for yearling scrotal circumference and weaning weight from Limousin field data. Records of 8.226 bulls were used to evaluate 584 sires and 653 maternal grandsires. Data included all herdbook records of bulls with a recorded scrotal circumference and their weaning contemporaries. Analyses were performed by restricted maximum likelihood techniques...

Weaning weight records of 44,357 Australian Angus calves produced by 1,020 sires in 90 herds were used to evaluate the importance of sire x herd interactions. Models fitted fixed effects of contemporary group (herd-year-date of weighing subclass), sex, calf age, and dam age and random effects of sire or of sire and sire x herd interaction using REML. Effects of standardizing the data, including...

Data collected by the National Livestock Research Institute of the Rural Development Administration of Korea were used to estimate genetic parameters for yearling (YWT, n = 5,848), 18-mo (W18, n = 4,585), and slaughter (SWT, n = 2,279) weights for Korean Native cattle. Nine animal models were used to obtain REML estimates of genetic parameters: DP-2 included genetic, uncorrelated dam, and resid...

Pre-slaughter live weight, dressing percentage, and hot standard carcase weight (HCWT) from the 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 birth-years of the Information Nucleus Flock Lambs (n=7325) were analysed using linear mixed effects models. Increasing the sire breeding value for post-weaning weight (PWWT), and c-site eye muscle depth (PEMD), and reducing the sire breeding value for fat depth (PFAT) all h...

Climate change is rapidly altering the thermal environment in terrestrial and aquatic systems. Transgenerational plasticity (TGP) – which occurs when temperatures experienced by parental generation prior to fertilization of gametes results a offspring reaction norms may mitigate effects climate change. Although “maternal effects” have been widely studied, relatively little known about TGP verte...

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and symmetric differences squared (SDS) methods were used to estimate additive genetic and environmental variances and covariances associated with weaning weight. The two methods were applied to 503 beef records collected over 19 yr from a relatively unselected university Angus herd. The SDS methodology was used with four models. The first model included direct (g) ...

For estimation of dominance effects and dominance variance, the inverse of a dominance relationship matrix is required. Dominance effects can be partitioned into sire x dam or sire x maternal grandsire subclass effects that are inherited and residuals within subclass that are not inherited. The subclass effects have immediate use in predicting performance of offspring from prospective matings. ...

A principal component analysis of the 4×4 sire, maternal, management and environmental (co)variance matrices derived from a multi-trait sire model was conducted to describe variability in four economically important carcass traits. Carcass weight (HCWt), P8 fat (P8), eye muscle area (EMA) and intramuscular fat (IMF) collected from 1144 heifers and steers calves from seven sire breeds: Angus, Be...

Weaning weights from nine sets of Angus field data from three regions of the United States were analyzed. Six animal models were used to compare two approaches to account for an environmental dam-offspring covariance and to investigate the effects of sire x herd-year interaction on the genetic parameters. Model 1 included random direct and maternal genetic, maternal permanent environmental, and...

We assessed genetic factors on progeny dispersal due to sire color morph genotypes in a field pedigree and lab crosses, and we measured maternal effects by studying both natural and experimentally induced egg size variation. Progeny were released into nature upon hatching, but we recorded dispersal distance at maturity, which reflects effective dispersal after viability selection has run its co...