Estimation of genetic parameters for milk yield using a random regression test-day model in first parity dairy cows under pasture-based systems of Los Ríos region in Chile

Abstract

In dairy cattle, genetic selection for milk yield was generally based on 305 days lactation records that were calculated from available monthly test-day milk yield records. A test-day milk yield record, multiplied by the number of days between the current and following test-day, was the monthly milk yield and summed to all other monthly milk yields represented a 305 days lactation yield. Cows that for any reason did not complete their lactation got a 305 days yield via correction factors assuming a common lactation curve. Random regression models allow individual deviation from a common curve. The objective of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for daily milk yield using a random regression model (RRM) in Chilean dairy cows. A data set containing 97,683 monthly test-day records of 10,528 cows from 15 commercial dairy herds of Los Rios Region in southern Chile was used. Days in milk (DIM) were modelled using the fourth-order Legendre polynomials and the model also included, as fixed effects, contemporary group and cow age at test-day as a covariate. The average daily milk yield was 17.83 ± 5.25 kg. Average estimated heritability and repeatability from five to 305 DIM was 0.26 ± 0.02 and 0.61 ± 0.04, respectively. The heritability estimate varied from 0.23 to 0.31. Both parameters did not vary dramatically except after 270 DIM when repeatability increased while heritability decreased. Although the estimated genetic parameters did not seriously depart from the most recent results available in the Chilean literature, they are mathematically more precise for estimating the true parameters than those calculated using adjustment factors, suggesting that the model used could be the starting point to develop a genetic evaluation system for dairy cattle in Chile.