5 May 2010

1 minute read

Europe

The catalogue features a range of young bulls whose genetic evaluations are based partly on an assessment of the bull’s own genes within his DNA – inherited from his parents and ancestors. This achieves a genetic index with a reliability of around 65-70 percent for production and type traits, which is similar to the reliability obtained from progeny testing around 30 daughters.

The bulls in the catalogue have been selected for their outstanding pedigrees and the high predicted indexes they have for a range of traits which are important for British dairy farmers. These include high production, high type, good health and fitness and high PLI (Profitable Lifetime Index).

Millions have been invested in the science behind DNA analysis, which has been developed over the past 20 years. However, genomically enhanced genetic evaluations were not officially released until the USA’s January 2009 proof run, and since that time, confidence has been reinforced as bulls which were previously assessed genomically have obtained progeny proofs of their own. These progeny proofs have been shown to far more closely reflect the bull’s genomic information than earlier predictions based on parent information alone.

Full details appear on Dairy Daughters’ website at www.dairydaughters.co.uk.

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