Estimation of genetic parameters and trends for energy-corrected 305-d milk yield in Iranian Holsteins

Abstract. Calving records from the Animal Breeding Centre of Iran collected from January 1995 to December 2007 and comprising 217973 calving events of Holsteins from 704 dairy herds were analysed using univariate and bivariate linear animal models to estimate heritabilities and genetic correlations for energy-corrected 305-d milk yield (ECM) in the first three lactations of Holstein cows. Genetic trends were obtained by regressing yearly mean estimates of breeding values on calving year. Average ECM increased from parity 1 through parity 3. Estimates of heritabilities were from 0.14 to 0.21 for ECM and decreased over the parities. The greatest genetic correlations were between ECM2 and ECM3 (0.96), and the greatest phenotypic correlations were between ECM1 and ECM2 (0.57) and ECM2 and ECM3 (0.57). The high and positive genetic correlations between ECM traits at different lactations are evidence for common genetic and physiological mechanism controlling these traits. There were positive and increasing phenotypic and genetic trends for ECM over the years (P<0.001). Higher heritability of the ECM in the first parity along with the high genetic correlations between first-lactation ECM with these traits in other lactations shows that higher potential exists for selecting animals for ECM based on their first parity records.