The effectiveness of the best linear unbiased prediction of beef sires using field data collected from small farms

Beef sire evaluation using BLUP was investigated under field conditions at small-scale farms. The 6,848 records on fattened Japanese Black cattle steers were obtained from 1981 through 1987. The average number of steers in the subclass of market-year-farm was 5.2. A sire-maternal grandsire mixed model with relationships was used to analyze the data to yield BLUP for the sire and maternal grandsire effects. The regression coefficients of the realized value of progeny on the predicted value calculated using BLUP procedures for daily gain, carcass weight, and marbling score were 1.027, 1.054, and .917, respectively (i.e., the regression almost equaled 1). Therefore, BLUP was shown to be very effective in predicting offspring performance, even using field records collected from small-scale farms.