Heterosis and breed differences were estimated for milk yield traits, somatic cell score (SCS), and productive life (PL), a measure of longevity. Yield trait data were from 10,442 crossbreds and 140,421 purebreds born since 1990 in 572 herds. Productive life data were from 41,131 crossbred cows and 726,344 purebreds born from 1960 through 1991. The model for test-day yields and SCS included eff...

The intensive selection programs for milk made possible by mass artificial insemination increased the similarity among the genomes of North American (NA) Holsteins tremendously since the 1960s. This migration of elite alleles has caused certain regions of the genome to have runs of homozygosity (ROH) occasionally spanning millions of continuous base pairs at a specific locus. In this study, gen...

Calving difficulty is a trait that greatly affects animal welfare, herd profitability, and the amount of labor required by cattle farmers. It is influenced by direct and maternal genetic components. Selection and breeding strategies can optimize the accuracy of genetic evaluations and correctly emphasize calving difficulty in multiple-trait indices provided there are accurate estimates of genet...

If genetic evaluations are calculated with a single-trait repeatability model, evaluation changes may be attributed in part to bulls that have daughters that deviate considerably from the typical response to aging. Differences in maturity rate of bull daughters were examined to determine whether they influence change in bull evaluations. Standardized milk records for Holsteins that first calved...

The objectives of this presentation are to review results of our previous and on-going research with respect to the risk factors and consequences of poor reproductive performance in dairy cows, and to develop an economic framework to optimize decisions related to dairy cow reproductive performance. To make profitable breeding and replacement decisions, the farmer must account for factors includ...

Es wird das Vorkommen der Kerbameise Formica pressilabris im Naturschutzge- biet Süderlügumer Binnendünen Nordwesten Schleswig-Holsteins dargestellt mit einigen Daten zur Bionomie Art sowie Struktur des Biotops. Der Fund Rahmen Gesamtverbreitung diskutiert. handelt sich um den Erstnachweis für Schleswig-Holstein.

Test-day variances for permanent environmental effects within and across parities were estimated along with lactation stage, age, and pregnancy effects for use with a test-day model. Data were test-day records for calvings since 1990 for Jerseys and for Holsteins from California, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Single-trait repeatability models were fitted for milk, fat, and protein test-da...

Progeny of Holstein females mated to sires of different breeds were genetically evaluated along with their purebred Holstein contemporaries born in the same herds using multiple trait animal models. The resulting estimated breeding values (EBV) of cows were averaged within breed of sire and compared relative to progeny of purebred Holstein sires for various economic traits. All progeny were bor...

Monthly weights, heights and condition scores and measurements taken at the time of puberty were utilized to estimate effects of breed-type and heterosis on characters related to growth, size and puberty of second-generation heifers of a five-breed diallel involving Angus, Brahman, Hereford, Holstein and Jersey. One group of heifers was maintained on pasture with supplemental feed; two other gr...

Computerized mating programs using genomic information are needed by breed associations, artificial-insemination organizations, and on-farm software providers, but such software is already challenged by the size of the relationship matrix. As of October 2012, over 230,000 Holsteins obtained genomic predictions in North America. Efficient methods of storing, computing, and transferring genomic r...