Application of robust procedures for estimation of breeding values in multiple-trait random regression test-day model

Robust procedures for estimation of breeding values were applied to multiple-trait random regression test-day (TD) model to reduce the influence of outliers on inferences. Robust estimation methods consisted of correcting selected observations (defined as outliers) in the process of solving mixed-model equations in such a way that 'new' observations gave residuals (actual observation minus predicted) within k residual standard deviations for a given day in milk in 305-day lactation. Data were 980,503 TD records on 63,346 Canadian Jersey cows. Milk, fat, protein and somatic cell score in the first three lactations were analysed jointly in the model that included fixed herd-TD effect and regressions within region-age-season of calving, and regressions with random coefficients for animal genetic and permanent environmental effects. All regressions were orthogonal polynomials of order 4. Robust procedures for k = 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 2.75 and 3.0 were contrasted with the regular best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) method in terms of numbers and distributions of outliers, and estimated breeding values (EBV) of animals. Distributions of outliers were similar across traits and lactations. Early days in milk (from 5 to 15) were associated with larger frequency of outliers compared with the remaining part of lactation. Several, computationally simple, robust methods (for k > 2.0) reduced the influence of outlier observations in the model and improved the overall model performance. Differences in rankings of animals from robust evaluations were small compared with the regular BLUP method. No clear associations between changes in EBV (rankings) of top animals from different methods and the occurrence of outliers were detected.