SUMMARYRecords of 178 593 monoparous births between 1964 and 1970 in Israeli-Friesian dairy cattle were analysed for information on environmental and genetic factors affecting calving difficulties and perinatal mortality. The incidence of difficult calvings (DC) and peri-natal calf mortality (PM) were 6·9 and 9·1% in heifer calvings, and 1·6 and 4·1% in cow calvings. Calving characters were not related t o heifer age nor cow parity, but there was a seasonal trend in heifer calvings, with both DC and PM being high in winter and low in summer calvings.Heritability estimates for calf-genotype effects on PM were 0·042 in heifer calvings and 0·013 in cow calvings. Heritability estimates for dam-genotype effects on PM were 0·018 and 0·004 respectively. Heritability estimates for DC were similar t o those for PM. The genetic correlations between DC and PM in the same class of calvings ranged between 0·8 and 0·9, while the environmental correlations were considerably lower, about 0·3. The genetic correlations between the calf-genotype effects in heifer and cow calvings were about 0·5, indicating that different factors may affect heifer and cow calvings.It is proposed that sires already proven for milk yield be tested for their calf effects in heifer calvings, using contemporary comparisons within herds and seasons. Results will be available when the sires are 6 to 6½ yr old. Sires causing fewest calving difficulties would be nominated for heifer matings, so that most heifer inseminations would be by sires proven for both yield and calving characters. Some long-term progress might be obtained if sires with a high incidence of difficulties in their heifer mates were not used to produce young sires.

Environmental and genetic effects on reproductive performance were estimated. Data included records of 194,579 inseminations of cows and 56,132 inseminations of heifers in 200 kibbutz herds from 1980 to 1981. Conception status was ascertained by veterinary palpation if no subsequent parturition was recorded. With subsequent parturition, the insemination closest to 277 days before parturition was considered successful. Largest differences in conception rate were between cows (40.4%) and heifers (64.3%) and among insemination month for cows (23.5 to 51.5%). Heritabilities of sire effect on conception rate were .016 for cows and .006 for heifers. Correlations between heifers and cows were .64 for inseminator and .54 for service sire. Low correlation between heifers and cows for herd effect (.17) indicates a management problem; low correlation between heifers and cows for sire effect (.27) suggests a different genetic mechanism for fertility. Significant improvement may be achieved in fertility by selection of service sires, sires, and inseminators if evaluations are based on a large number of observations. However, the major increase of conception rate may be expected from reducing adverse effects of summer conditions on reproductive performance.

Genetic correlations among Predicted Differences for milk yield corrected for economic value of fat content, annualized yield, yield persistency, conception rate, and culling rate were estimated. Correlations were .43 between yield persistency and annualized yield, .42 between yield persistency and conception rate, and .1 between annualized yield and conception rate. For Predicted Differences for these traits computed separately for each of first three parities, correlations between pairs were highest for annualized yield and lowest for culling rate. Regression coefficients for conception rate from cow insemination records on daily yield preceding insemination and on absolute change of yield during month of insemination were significantly negative for the first three parities. A positive pleiotropic effect for yield, yield persistency, and conception rate was suggested; therefore, progeny testing for yield persistency may improve yield and conception rate. High yields and large changes of yield during month of insemination adversely affected conception rate of cows within herds.

SUMMARYProgeny testing of selected queens, being part of improvement project of Italian bees in Israel, was carried out between 1962 and 1974 at the Bee Breeding Apiary of the Ministry of Agriculture at Zerifin. Honey production and brood area of 562 and 499 bee colonies, respectively, were recorded.The regression of honey production on the number of brood cells was linear without any parabolic trend, and amounted to 0.7 kg honey per 1 000 brood cells. The regression of brood cells and honey production of daughters on brood cells of mothers was very slight and non-significant. Therefore, the fertility of Italian queens, measured by the number of brood bells, could not serve as criterion for selection for improvement of honey production. The regression of honey production of daughter queens on that of their mothers was 0.27 + 0.08 showing heritability of 0.54. The selection differential for queens (average of 13 years) was 17.5 kg. Thus queen selection according to honey production seems to have been an effective tool for improving honey production of the Italian honey bee.

The effects of days-open on milk yields in current lactations and in following lactations were estimated from 71 911 current and 68 693 following lactation records. Yields were expressed as 305-day, total and annual records, where annual record = 365 × (total yield/days between calvings).The data were grouped according to current days-open, corrected for initial yield differences and analysed separately for heifers and cows in Moshav (moderate-yielding) and Kibbutz (high-yielding) herds. Current 305-day records increased by 15 to 18 kg milk/day-open up to 90 days-open, and 2 to 3 kg/day-open thereafter. In contrast, the effects of increasing days-open on annual yields were generally small and negative, being positive only for heifers up to 90 days-open. Thus 305-day records heavily under-rated annual yields of fertile cows. For current lactations, 70 to 100 days-open for heifers and 30 to 50 days-open for cows resulted in the highest annual production. Yields in following lactations were positively associated with days-open in the previous lactation. The effect was highest in high-yielding herds, suggesting that high-yielding cows respond positively to some rest between calvings.Combining the effects of days-open on current and following lactation yields and on the calf crop: in high-yielding herds heifers had the highest productivity when mated not earlier than 70 days post partum, while in moderately-yielding herds days-open did not affect productivity. Cows in high-yielding herds achieved highest productivity at 41 to 90 days-open, while cows in moderately-yielding herds were most productive when mated as early as possible.A comparison of the economic value of sire fertility and sire transmitting ability for milk production showed that fertility may often be over-rated.