Genetic parameters for fertility of dairy heifers and cows at different parities and relationships with production traits in first lactation

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters for fertility of Brown Swiss cattle, considering reproductive measures in different parities as different traits, and to estimate relationships between production traits of first lactation and fertility of heifers and first-parity and second-parity cows. Reproductive indicators were interval from parturition to first service, interval from first service to conception, interval from parturition to conception, number of inseminations to conception, conception rate at first service, and nonreturn rate at 56 d after first service. Production traits were peak milk yield (pMY), lactation milk yield, and lactation length (LL). Data included 37,546 records on heifers, and 24,098 and 15,653 records on first- and second-parity cows, respectively. Cows were reared in 2,035 herds, calved from 1999 to 2007, and were progeny of 527 AI bulls. Gibbs sampling was implemented to obtain (co)variance components using both univariate and bivariate threshold and censored linear sire models. Estimates of heritability for reproductive traits in heifers (0.016 to 0.026) were lower than those in first-parity (0.017 to 0.142) and second-parity (0.026 to 0.115) cows. Genetic correlations for fertility in first- and second-parity cows were very high (>0.920), whereas those between heifers and lactating cows were moderate (0.348 to 0.709). The latter result indicates that fertility in heifers is a different trait than fertility in lactating cows, and hence it cannot be used as robust indicator of cow fertility. Heifer fertility was not related to production traits in first lactation (genetic correlations between -0.215 and 0.251). Peak milk yield exerted a moderate and unfavorable effect on the interval from parturition to first service (genetic correlations of 0.414 and 0.353 after first and second calving, respectively), and a low and unfavorable effect on other fertility traits (genetic correlations between -0.281 and 0.295). Infertility after first calving caused a strong elongation of the lactation, and LL was negatively correlated with fertility of cows after second calving, so that LL can itself be regarded as a measure of fertility. Lactation milk yield depends on both pMY and LL, and, as such, is a cause and consequence of (in)fertility.

Genetic relationship of functional longevity with female fertility and milk production traits in Czech Holsteins

“…This reduces the scope for selection for female fertility in the second parity cows. In contrast, Raheja et al (1989) and Tiezzi et al (2012) detected a smaller reduction in heritabilities of fertility traits for second parity cows than reported in the present paper.…”

“…These results indicate that none of the evaluated fertility traits can be considered to be biologically the same trait in the first vs. second lactation. Tiezzi et al (2012) reported very high genetic correlations (> 0.92) between all the interval fertility traits in the subsequent lactation, whereas Raheja et al (1989) found very low genetic relationship between fertility in the first and second lactations. All of the herd-year and residual effects correlations of longevity with fertility traits in the first and second lactation were low (< 0.08; data not shown).…”

Dairy systems in mountainous areas: Farm animal biodiversity, milk production and destination, and land use

“…Nevertheless, it is still the most important breed across all the dairy systems. In this context, the future trend of Brown Swiss will likely depend more on the maintenance or improvement of its fertility and longevity (Tiezzi et al, 2012), milkability (Povinelli et al, 2003), milk quality Macciotta et al, 2012), and harsh environment adaptation (Bovolenta et al, 2009), than on further improvements of milk productivity. The expansion of Simmental has interested almost exclusively the traditional systems, and is probably a result of an improvement of milk productivity, mainly with German and Austrian Fleckvieh and with French Montbeliarde semen, which has not affected the original dual-purpose characteristics.…”

Short communication: Genetic analysis of dairy bull fertility from field data of Brown Swiss cattle

“…The original data set was obtained from the Breeders Association of Bolzano-Bozen Province (northeast Italy) and consisted of 206,478 single inseminations performed on Brown Swiss heifers and cows from 1999 to 2008. A comprehensive description of the data set has been previously reported by Tiezzi et al (2011Tiezzi et al ( , 2012. Inseminations were validated as successful for CS when gestation length was 288 ± 15 d (mean value for Brown Swiss from Norman et al, 2009).…”