Effect of Cows in the Reference Population: First Results in Swiss Brown Swiss

Summary

The effect of including 1,236 cows in the current reference population of Swiss Brown Swiss cattle on the accuracy of genomic breeding values was studied. The accuracy of genomic predictions based on reference populations consisting of bulls only and bulls and cows was compared. The gain in accuracy was very small or not existing at all. Reasons could be that the number of cows was too small for a reference population consisting of 4,085 bulls and that the cows and bulls were too closely related. Nevertheless, genotyping cows and subsequent inclusion in the reference population should be accelerated.