For the past 12 months, a team from CDCB and USDA AGIL have been performing a thorough, top-to-bottom review of female fertility traits – Daughter Pregnancy Rate (DPR), Cow Conception Rate (CCR), Heifer Conception Rate (HCR), and Early First Calving (EFC) – while also exploring the development of a new trait – First Service to Conception (FSC). This trait review has focused on investigating methodology adjustments to improve the stability of specifically young bulls between evaluations. Concepts considered and tested so far include historical data use, the handling of incomplete DPR records, opportunities for efficiency, and more. Through this process, researchers at the two institutions have re-estimated genetic parameters for all five traits, resulting in updated heritabilities and correlations that will be implemented after the project is completed.
The historical review of existing traits and the current evaluations is concluded and has built a solid foundation. The project remains in testing and ongoing. We look forward to sharing final findings when they are available.
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