Effect of inclusion or non-inclusion of short lactations and cow and/or dam genetic group on genetic evaluation of Girolando dairy cattle.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of inclusion or non-inclusion of short lactations and cow (CGG) and/or dam (DGG) genetic group on the genetic evaluation of 305-day milk yield (MY305), age at first calving (AFC), and first calving interval (FCI) of Girolando cows. Covariance components were estimated by the restricted maximum likelihood method in an animal model of single trait analyses. The heritability estimates for MY305, AFC, and FCI ranged from 0.23 to 0.29, 0.40 to 0.44, and 0.13 to 0.14, respectively, when short lactations were not included, and from 0.23 to 0.28, 0.39 to 0.43, and 0.13 to 0.14, respectively, when short lactations were included. The inclusion of short lactations caused little variation in the variance components and heritability estimates of traits, but their non-inclusion resulted in the re-ranking of animals. Models with CGG or DGG fixed effects had higher heritability estimates for all traits compared with models that consider these two effects simultaneously. We recommend using the model with fixed effects of CGG and inclusion of short lactations for the genetic evaluation of Girolando cattle.

Estimates of genetic parameters using RELM/BLUP for intrapopulational genetic breeding of Platonia insignis Mart.

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters to support the selection of bacuri progenies for a first cycle of recurrent selection, using the REML/BLUP (restricted maximum likelihood/best linear unbiased prediction) procedure to estimate the variance components and genotypic values. Were evaluated twelve variables in a total of 210 fruits from 39 different seed trees, from a field trial with an experimental design of incomplete blocks with clonal replies among subplots. The three variables related with the fruit development (weight, diameter, length) showed strong correlation, and where fruit length showed higher heritability and potential to be used for indirect selection. Among the 39 progenies evaluated in this study, five present potential to compose the next cycle of recurrent selection, due they hold good selection differential either to agrotechnological variables as to development of bacuri fruit.