April 2020 Evaluation Run is one of the historic runs for the ANARB because of the many changes.
- Implementation of the One-Step calculation method for sires
After using this method to calculate cow indexes for one year, we will be using it for sire also. All genomic records collected on the female population in the last decade can be finally used to improve the accuracy of the genomic evaluation of sires.
- Change of the fat and protein percentage calculation method
As it happened one year ago for cows, starting from this run the calculation of the fat and protein percentage calculation method for sires will change completely. The new method can identify the differences among sires of different ages and allows a more accurate comparison between the proven sires and the young genomic sires.
- New Genetic base for functional and production indexes.
To avoid changing the order of magnitude of the sires’ index we decided to use for all traits the same genetic base used for type traits. The genetic base is the reference point of all genetic indexes: all animals included in the base have an average index equal to 0 for the production traits and equal to 100 for the other traits. Starting from this evaluation run, we will be using a mobile base (updated for each evaluation run) which includes ll animals born from 12 to 15 years ago. Specifically, for the April 2020 Run, the base includes all animals born from April 2005 and April 2007. This change will be visible in the cows’ evaluation without changing the ranking of the animals.
- Technical adjustment of the ITE
Since the new evaluation method calculates the genetic evaluation using a single rating scale- different from the one previously used – a slight technical adjustment to the ITE calculation formula. This adjustment allows applying the CTC selection choices more correctly. The resulted ITE variation is minimal for cows and negligible for sires.
The records of the new genetic evaluation are available on line from Tuesday, April 7 at 12.am