Genetic evaluation of calving ease for Walloon Holstein dairy cattle.

Calving complications have an incidence on the economic profitability of dairy herds. In the Walloon Region of Belgium, calving ease data recording is being done on voluntary basis since 2000. This allows now the implementation of a genetic evaluation of Holstein dairy cattle addressing the need of dairy breeders to select bulls in order to reduce frequency of calving problems. Calving ease scores were analyzed using univariate animal linear models, which were fitted with the genetic correlation between direct and maternal additive genetic effects either estimated or constrained to zero. Varia... Mehr ...