GENETIC VARIABILITY FOR WEIGHT AND HEIGHT OF NELORE COWS

Juliana V. Portes, Joslaine N.S.G. Cyrillo, Lenira El Faro,

Rodrigo A. Teixeira, Laila T. Dias
Universidade Federal do Paran, Curitiba (PR), Brasil, e-mail: juh@zootecnista.com.br
Instituto de Zootecnia, Sertozinho (SP)

INTRODUCTION
In Brazil, beef cattle breeding programs have prioritized growth traits as selection criteria because are easy to obtain and respond
to direct selection. However, the selection for body weight may increase the size of mature cows and it is not desirable in extensive
production system.

OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the genetic parameters differences between Selection (NeS) and Control (NeC) herds for weight and height of cows.

MATERIAL AND METHODS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Females from 1 to 8 years of age, coming from the Beef
Cattle Breeding Program of IZ de Sertozinho-SP were Control Selection
analyzed.

For weight:
6,597 records of 863 NeC and 13,303 records of 1,694 NeS;
For height:
6,286 records of 853 NeC and 12,570 records of 1,532 NeS;
1 2 3 4 5 67 8 1 2 3 4 5 67 8

Contemporary group (GC): year and month of birth, year and

season of measurement.
Measurements: at 365, 450 and 550 days of age, at the
beginning and at the end of the breeding season, at calving
and at calf weaning.
Females were grouped into classes of 5 days (1 to 2 years),
15 days (2 to 6 years) and 30 days (6 to 8 years of age)
195 age classes.
(co)variance components WOMBAT (Meyer, 2007). 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 1 2 3 4 5 67 8

Model:

For weight: Legendre polynomials k = 3, 6, 1 with 21 variance

classes (quarterly)
For height: k = 4, 3 with residual variance homogeneous
1 2 3 4 5 67 8 1 2 3 4 5 67 8

Figure 1. Additive genetic variance, phenotypic variance, and heritability

coefficients for weight (left) and height (right), in Nelore cows of control and
selection lines, of Beef Cattle Breeding Program of Instituto de Zootecnia de
Sertozinho SP, where: Class 1 = 1 year; Class 73 = 2 years; Class 97 = 3
years; Class 122 = 4 years; Class 146 = 5 years; Class 170 = 6 years; Class
183 = 7 years and Class 195 = 8 years of age.

CONCLUSION
Even after 30 years of selection for weight, there is genetic
variability indicating that is a possibility to obtain genetic gain for
this trait.
The hip height could be an effective selection criteria to
monitor the cows mature size.