Breeding and Genetics : Effect of Number of Lactation Records on the Selection Rates in Holstein Dairy Cattle

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of lactation records in Holstein dairy cattle on the selection rates using a total of 341,436 test records from 113, 812 heads of cattle from first to third lactation. Heritabilities for milk, fat, and protein yields were highest at first lactation (0.28. 0.24, and 0.27. respectively), and decreased to 0.14, 0.15, and 0.13 at third lactation. For the milk yields, phenotypic correlations between first and second lactation, first and third lactation, and second and third lactation were low (0.49, 0.39, and 0.47, respectively), while genetic correlations among consecutive lactations and between second and third were above 0.8 and 0.9. In Model I, of the 1.138 heads the top 1% were selected based on first lactation records, only 32.4% (396 heads) were re-selected when the second lactation records were included and the 67.6% (769 heads) were newly selected animals. While in Model II, 85.l% (l, 138 heads) of the animals which were selected as the top 1% on the basis of first and second lactation records were included. A multiple trait evaluation method using multiple lactation records is more desirable than a single trait evaluation method using first lactation records only.