Comparison of sire evaluation methods for milk production in Vrindavani cattle

Abstract

First lactation records (301) of Vrindavani crossbred (Zebu × Taurus) cows, progeny of 15 sires, were analyzed to estimate the variance components, breeding values of sires and genetic parameters for first lactation 305 days or less milk yield using least squares method (LSM) best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and animal model (DFREML). Using LSM, BLUP and DFREML methods of sire evaluation the average breeding value of sires were 2747.37 kg, 2741.19 kg and 2807.64 kg, respectively. Although, lowest error variance and highest coefficient of determination in DFREML method revealed that this method of sire evaluation was most efficient and accurate followed by LSM method of sire evaluation but the LSM method was the best for discrimination amongst sires as revealed from highest range of breeding values. Using LSM, BLUP and DFREML estimates of heritability for lactation milk yield (LMY) were 0.30, 0.267 and 0.080, respectively. The rank and simple correlations among all the 3 methods of sire evaluations were high and statistically highly significant suggesting that there was higher degree of similarity in ranking of sires by different methods.