Abstract
Genomic selection is a new technology in animal breeding that offers relatively high reliabilities very early in an animal's life. Applications within breeding programs are justified if previous reliabilities can be exceeded or if changes in selection and mating strategies ensure a higher genetic progress. Possible changes are an improved preselection of testbulls, the usage of testbulls as bull sires, or the selection of bull dams by genomic selection. An exclusive usage of genomic selection for an improved preselection of testbulls results in a benefit of merely 1.52% compared to the current breeding program for Simmental cattle. More advantageous are breeding programs where no longer progeny tested bulls are used as bull sires but testbulls. In addition, if higher selection intensities can be realized the superiority over the current breeding program is further increased. An increase of 40.11% is possible. The selection of bull dams can only be improved on a small scale. Especially breeding values of heifers can be predicted with higher reliabilities using genomic selection. But the relevance of these animals as bull dams is very limited. Both the time horizon and the kind of changes in the current breeding structure depend on the acceptance of bulls selected by genomic selection by breeding companies and farmers.
| Translated title of the contribution | Strategies for integrating genomic selection into the breeding program for simmental cattle |
|---|---|
| Original language | German |
| Pages (from-to) | 312-327 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Zuchtungskunde |
| Volume | 81 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| State | Published - 2009 |
| Externally published | Yes |