How to understand and use dairy goat performance data Improving Dairy Goats How to understand and use dairy goat performance data

Questions to Answer Where does the data come from and how does it get to us? What happens to the “numbers” once they leave the barn? How can this data be used to improve our animals? How can you make informed decisions on breeding? How can you choose a herd sire with the best chance for improving your animals? 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Overview Considerations Goat data flow AIPL-USDA processing Buck Data Doe Data Future Plans Resources Questions??? Demo 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Considerations Pros Cons Sure beats performance volumes! Data as soon as evaluations are released Many ways of viewing the data Cons Manual addition of goats without yield and/or type data Many does are only identified by Reg # 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Goat Data Flow 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz Milk Test Day Data (Yield) Linear Appraisal (Type) AIPL-USDA DRPC ADGA Public Production And Type Data 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

AIPL-USDA AIPL = “Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory” Charter To discover, test, and implement improved genetic evaluation techniques for economically important traits of dairy cattle and goats 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Yield Evaluation Yield evaluations released each July Figured using complex criteria Data is filtered to remove outlying points Factors considered: Management Group (herd, kidding month and kidding number) Genetic merit (breeding value) Permanent environment (disease, superior rearing) Herd-sire interaction (daughters in 1 herd, same sire, similar yield) Unexplained residual effects 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Yield Evaluation Terms PTA – Predicted Transmitting Ability PTA is the genetic merit the animal is expected to contribute to offspring and is ½ the breeding value. All breeds are analyzed together but PTA can only be compared within a breed. The yield genetic base by breed is recalculated every 5 years. REL – Reliability Measure of evaluation accuracy For bucks, more herds, higher reliability MFP$ - Milk-Fat-Protein Dollars Index for yield economic value $.031 (PTA milk) + $.80 (PTA fat) + $2.00 (PTA protein) PCTILE – Percentile Based on MFP$ Top 15% bucks and 5% does are designated elite 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Average Genetic Merit 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz Breed Milk Fat Protein Alpine .0 Experimental -114 -.7 -1.3 LaMancha -334 -4.8 -5.4 Nubian -531 4.4 -1.9 Oberhasli -476 -15.7 -14.3 Saanen 60 8 1.9 Toggenburg -18 -6.4 -3.5 Breed differences in average estimated breeding value based on 1990 data from AIPL. This value is subtracted from the actual calculated breed value to arrive at the PTA. 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Type Evaluation Linear Appraisal data for final score (50-99) and 13 linear traits (1-50) comes from ADGA Values are adjusted for age at appraisal and all evaluations are used Multi-trait animal model is used Correlations between traits is considered using heritability factors Data is analyzed across breeds and are not adjusted, so comparison can be made. 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Evaluation Indexes PTI (Production Type Index) Relative breeding value based on both yield and type Combines yield (FCM) and type (PTA) with breed factors Production over Type (2:1) Type over Production (1:2) Higher PTI = Higher breeding value ETA (Estimated Transmitting Ability) Based on the PTIs of parents Must have at least the sire PTI and dam or dam’s sire PTI 2 weightings – ETA 2:1 and ETA 1:2 Comparisons only within a breed Higher ETA = Higher potential breeding value 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Buck Data General Buck data is based only on daughter evaluations Since a buck has the most significant effect on the total herd improvement, concentrate on the boys! 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Buck Yield Data Lots of fields to pick from (PTA, PTA% and others) All can be subset by breed Options: Sort – Return the top 50 bucks for a given field sorted in descending order. Name Search – Find bucks with names either starting with or containing a string Pctile or Rel Search – Subset data for a range of values Uses: Bucks offering the most improvement in milk, fat or protein Compare bucks from the same herd Find bucks with the most consistency Find bucks with the most dairy value Find the most widely used bucks View details of a specific buck 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Buck Type Data Lots of fields to pick from All can be subset by breed Options: Sort – Return bucks for a given field sorted in descending Rel order. Name Search – Find bucks with names either starting with or containing a string Trait Ideal Range – Find bucks with trait values in the ADGA defined trait ideal range Trait UD Range – Same a #4 but you can define the range Trait Ordered By PTA – Subset data by individual trait values Uses: Find the mostly widely used bucks Find bucks offering the most improvement for a specific trait Find bucks with a trait value in a specific range View details of a specific buck 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Doe Data Does are identified in public data only by registration number prior to 1990 Does names in my database have been user entered or otherwise loaded Only doe details can be viewed 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Future Plans Convert site to new web technology Planned breeding ETA calculator and pedigree viewer Best buck for a doe Any other ideas you can come up with… Keep out of trouble 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Resources Missdee’s Alpines Website AIPL Home Page http://tools.missdees.com AIPL Home Page http://aipl.arsusda.gov/index.htm AIPL Goat Evaluation Description http://aipl.arsusda.gov/reference/goat/goatsfs.html ADGA Sire Development Document http://adga.org/SD/SireDevelopment.htm 9/4/2019 Gene Dershewitz

Questions What’s on your mind???

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