Validation of national genetic evaluations for maternal beef cattle traits using Irish field data

Genetic evaluations provide information to aid in breeding decisions that increase long-term performance of animals and herds. However, to date no study has been undertaken to investigate the accuracy of the Irish maternal genetic evaluations in beef cattle. The objective, therefore, of this study was to quantify the relationship between phenotypic performance and measures of genetic merit for predominantly maternal-related traits in Irish beef cattle. The association between animal EBV for calving interval, age at first calving, and both direct and maternal weaning weight with the respective phenotypic performance was quantified using a fixed effects model; the expectation for the regression coefficient of phenotypic performance on EBV was one. The association between genetic merit for cow survival, perinatal mortality, calving assistance, and calving dystocia with the log of the odds of the respective trait was quantified using logistic regression. The association analyses were conducted using field data on up to 38,619 records from 5,236 herds. Age at first calving increased linearly by 0.32 +/- 0.15 (P = 0.03) days per day increase in EBV for age at first calving. Calving interval increased by, on average, 0.58 +/- 0.16 (P = 0.002) days per day increase in EBV for calving interval although the association differed by parity with a greater association in pluriparae. Weaning weight increased linearly by 1.74 +/- 0.09 and 0.84 +/- 0.16 kg (P < 0.001) per kilogram increase in EBV for direct and maternal weaning weight, respectively. The log of the odds of a cow surviving to next lactation increased linearly by 0.16 +/- 0.03 (P < 0.001) per unit increase in EBV for cow survival. The log of the odds of an assisted calving or dystocia both increased linearly by 0.21 +/- 0.01 and 0.24 +/- 0.01, respectively, per unit increase in EBV for direct calving difficulty (P < 0.001). The log of the odds of a dead calf at birth increased linearly by 0.93 +/- 0.13 (P < 0.001) per unit increase in EBV for calf mortality. Results from this study show that selection of breeding animals for favorable maternal genetic attributes will result in favorable improvements in performance and profitability.