Use of multiple-trait animal models for genetic evaluation of milk, fat and protein lactation yields of dairy cattle in Belgium

Comparison of computation time between single-trait and multiple-trait evaluations showed that with the use of the canonicat transformation associated with multiple diagonalization of (co)variance matrices, multiple-trait analysis for milk, fat and protein yields is not more expensive than three single-trait analyzes. Rank correlations between breeding values for 54,820 cows with records (for their 1,406 sires) estimated with the single-trait and multiple-trait models were over .98 (.99) in fat yield and over .99 (.99) in milk and protein yields. The relative gain expressed as reduction in mea... Mehr ...