Comparison of genetic evaluations from animal model and modified contemporary comparison

Comparisons were made between characteristics of Modified Contemporary Comparison and animal model evaluations with data available for January 1989 USDA-DHIA genetic evaluations. The animal model system's requirement that cows have a valid first lactation record resulted in a decrease in cows and daughters included. New flexible comparison groups were slightly larger for small herds and much smaller for large herds, which resulted in overall smaller and more uniform-sized comparison groups. Determining the optimal method of defining management groups was not undertaken. Correlations between bull evaluations from the two procedures ranged from .92 to .95 across breeds. Increases in reliability over repeatability were substantial for bulls with limited daughter information and small for widely used bulls. Correlations between evaluations for cows born in 1985 were .92 to .96, whereas those for cows born in 1980 (old enough to have daughters affecting animal model evaluations) were lower (.90 to .93), as expected. Reliabilities for cows were .02 to .05 higher than repeatabilities. Cows with more daughters increased more in evaluation and accuracy between the two procedures and were genetically superior. Bulls and cows with more prior information, cows with higher past evaluations, and Holstein bulls with higher past evaluations tended to have larger increases in PTA. Genetic trend estimates were different for the animal model, which resulted in changes in evaluations of various magnitudes depending on breed, sex, and birth year of animal.