Genetic parameters of type traits and production in Holstein cattle from the Department of Antioquia

Objective. To estimate heritability, phenotypic and genetic correlations among 24 type traits and milk production in Holstein cows from Antioquia. Materials and methods. The data analyzed included 2395 holstein cow records. Variance components were estimated through the procedure of maximum restricted likelihood using bi-characteristic animal models. For the type traits, the model included the fixed effects such as, herd, father's year of birth and country of origin, contemporary group (year-month-classifier) and the classification age covariate. For milk production the model included fixed effects such as herd, calving year and father's year and country of birth. Results. The heritability found for the type traits varied from 0.04 to 0.44 and for milk production was 0.22, standard errors for heritability were lower than 0.06. Genetic correlations between milk production and udder depth (-0.72) were high, while the highest correlations for the type traits were between height at front end and size (0.90), foot angle and heel depth (0.98), heel depth and hoof uniformity (0.85) and median suspensory ligament with rear teat placement (0.76). Conclusions. Considerable genetic variation in type traits in Holstein populations from Antioquia was found. Genetic correlations between some type traits were high and indicate the possibility of reducing the number of features evaluated in each animal.