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Heterogeneity of variance and dairy cattle breeding

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

P. M. Visscher  and
W. G. Hill
P. M. Visscher
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT
W. G. Hill
Affiliation:
Institute of Cell, Animal and Population Biology, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JT
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Abstract

The effects of heterogeneity among herds in phenotypic variance (σ2p) and in heritability (h2) on the accuracy of evaluation of dairy sires and cows are discussed with reference to estimates from field data. It is argued that heterogeneity of σ2P can be accounted for by using a (Bayesian) regression procedure. While the same procedure could be used to correct for heterogeneity of h2, in most practical situations the sampling errors of the h2 estimates for individual herds are likely to be so large that regressed estimates of h2 will differ little from each other, so constant values can be assumed.

Keywords

dairy cattlegenetic varianceheritabilityselection
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , December 1992 , pp. 321 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1992

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