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Estimation of direct and maternal genetic effect on weaning weight and average daily gain to wean in Japanese Black cattle
There are comparatively few studies dealing with parameter estimates for growth traits particularly in weaning weight and average daily gain to wean for Japanese Black cattle. Variance and covariance components were estimated using two-trait restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure under animal models. Direct and maternal variances of weaning weight and weaning daily gain were 116.309±27.562 kg and 0.005±0.0016 kg; 66.485±13.203 kg and 0.005±0.00094, respectively. Phenotypic variances of weaning weight and weaning daily gain were 316.509 kg and 0.021 kg, respectively. Genetic covariances between direct and maternal of weaning weight and weaning daily gain were 7.625±16.479 kg, and 0.0005±0.0010 kg. Direct heritabilities were 0.367±0.071 for weaning weight and 0.250±0.066 for weaning daily gain, respectively. Maternal heritabilities for those traits were lower than direct heritabilities for all traits.
Keywords:
weaning weight, weaning daily gain, Japanese Black cattle
