On the Value of the Phenotypes in the genomic Era

Abstract Text: Genetic improvement programs around the world rely on the collection of accurate phenotypic data. These phenotypes have an inherent value that can be calculated as the contribution of an additional record to genetic gain. The contribution of phenotypes were calculated using traditional progeny testing and 2 genomic selection strategies that included either exclusively males or females in the reference population. The main factors affecting the value of a phenotype are: the economic value of the trait; the number of phenotypic records already available for the trait and its heritability. Further, the cost of achieving a reliability of 0.60 using genomic selection is lower using sires with small progeny sizes (e.g. 20 daughters), unless the heritability is large and the cost of phenotyping exceeds a few hundred dollars, then female reference populations are economically more efficient

Keywords: dairy cattle,phenotype,phenomics