Felipe Lembeye Illanes
Doctor of Philosophy
Study Completed: 2017
College of Sciences
Citation
Thesis Title
Developing Selection Indexes & Estimation of Genetic Parameters for Traits of Economic Importance in Dairy Cattle under Once-a-Day Milking
Read article at Massey Research Online:
In New Zealand, the standard milking frequency is twice-a-day. However, about 5% of dairy herds are milked once-a-day. For this small population, a selection scheme has not been implemented. Therefore, cows are inseminated using sires evaluated with progeny under the twice-a-day system. Evaluating the effect of milking frequency environments on the genetic evaluation of dairy sires would reveal if developing a specific selection scheme for the once-a-day population is justified. Mr. Lembeye investigated sire-by-milking frequency interaction for traits of economic importance. He conducted the genetic evaluation in two equivalent populations under once- and twice-a-day milking, and found that there is no enough evidence of sire re-ranking for milk production traits. The results of Mr Lembeye indicate that there is little advantage in the implementation of a separate selection scheme. The results of this thesis also suggested similar genetic gain using sires selected with their progeny in twice-a-day systems and dedicated to cows milked once-a-day.
Supervisors
Professor Nicolas Lopez-Villalobos
Dr Sr Davis
Dr Jennifer Burke
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Last updated on Monday 04 April 2022