Genotype x environment interaction in dairy cattle and its role in breeding programmes

Summary

Eighty thousand, one hundred and eleven records of the Israeli dairy herdbook for the period of 1973–1977 were studied and examined to determine the existence of Genotype x Environment Interaction (GxE) as affecting milk yield in kg per day between calvings. Various quantitative measures of environment were used while the genotypes were evaluated as the average performance of each sire's daughters in a whole range of environments.

When the environment was evaluated as level of production, the relative importance of the interaction was found to be very low. Furthermore, the linear dependence on the interaction of the individual sires with the environments was found to be inconsistent with time, meaning that no justification was found for using specific adaptation patterns of genotypes to these environments.

When lactation number and given time periods were used as environments, significant interactions were found between genotypes and environments. Results of the analyses of Genotype x Lactation interaction imply that the interaction values, to a certain degree, confused the differences between the sires when based on first lactation records. We therefore conclude that the need exists to expand the basis of sire evaluation, including the addition of data on successive lactation periods beyond the first one.

We maintain that the genetic characteristic for this phenomenon is the “lactations development” of a sire, i.e., the performance of its daughters during the different lactations. The “maturing rhythm” of a sire may be regarded as a dynamic expression of the genetic makeup controlling lactation development. Furthermore, the prospect of selecting sires of bulls for early or late maturing could provide a new tool for the dairy cattle breeder.