Possible Genetic Improvement in Dairy Cattle with Improving Reproductive Rates
Genetic changes from improving female's reproductive rate through in vitro fertilization of large number of oocytes were studied. The breeding scheme employed was multiple ovulation and embryo transfer of juveniles and adults. Both balanced and unbalanced matings were examined for the four closed progeny population sizes, 10, 10, 105, 106. In balanced matings, all selected sires and dams were mated to each other(cross-classified mating) while unbalanced matings allowed selected dams and sires mated partially, eg. unbalanced matings allowed averages of .5 and .25 progeny per each mating. Various numbers of selected sires and dams were also examined in both balanced and unbalanced matings. In all mating schemes, selection of males and females was restricted to he one from each fullsib family to reduce the rate of inbreeding. The model calculations were deterministic and accounted for the effects of selection and inbreeding on loss of the genetic variation in succeeding generations. Balanced rectangular mating schemes, where more donors were selected than sires, resulted in larger selection responses than balanced square mating schemes, where equal numbers of sires and donors were selected, and unbalanced rectangular mating. The first round selection responses from the balanced rectangular matings of juvenile MOET, eg. number of progeny per mating equals 2 with 10 sires selected, were 1.192, 1.406, 1.580 and 1.735 times larger than the first round selection responses from the balanced square mating schemes for the given four progeny population sizes, 10, 10, 105 and 106, respectively. Similar results were obtained in adult MOET breeding schemes. However, balanced square matings gave greater selection responses than the unbalanced rectangular matings.