inheritance of milk production

Does anyone know how milk production is inherited? recessive, dominant etc.? Also udder attachment and teat size. Any reference material would be appreciated.
Thanks

There is lots of info on this subject in the dairy business, and I don't see why the heritability of these traits would not extend to beef cows as well.  Try the Canadian Dairy Network, CDN.  They are responsible for coordinating the data from these tests for all the dairy breeds and could give a very accurate picture of heritability in all areas in dairy cattle.  Feet and legs would be another characteristic to look at. 

Toughie said:

There is lots of info on this subject in the dairy business, and I don't see why the heritability of these traits would not extend to beef cows as well.  Try the Canadian Dairy Network, CDN.  They are responsible for coordinating the data from these tests for all the dairy breeds and could give a very accurate picture of heritability in all areas in dairy cattle.  Feet and legs would be another characteristic to look at. 

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There's lots of stuff there but pretty technical and all comparisons of collected data. It doesn't really give any basic genetic inheritance. Thanks though, interesting site.

Okotoks said:

Does anyone know how milk production is inherited? recessive, dominant etc.? Also udder attachment and teat size. Any reference material would be appreciated.
Thanks

Click to expand...

I searched and so far the best thing that I can come up with is this link.
http://www.iowabeefcenter.org/Beef%20Cattle%20Handbook/Selecting_Replacement_Heifers.pdf

I have a call in to ISU, but don't know whether or not I will get a call back until next week now. The crux of this link is saying that heredity for increased milk production is.15-.30 and varies greatly between breeds.

Here is another link that also says milk is 15 - 25%, traits and the heritability are on page 6

http://www.ansci.umn.edu/beef/beefupdates/bcmu03.pdf

Here is another link, even though it pertains mainly to the dairy industry is still only shows Holsteins with a 30% inheritable for milk but 15% for lifetime production.

Dairy traits and beef are very closely related.

http://www.thecattlesite.com/articles/699/using-heritability-for-genetic-improvement

Thanks everyone for the links. (thumbsup)

Looks like most everything to do with udder type and milk production is in the 24% to 30% heritability range. I was just trying to get an understanding of how some bulls seem to really have a strong influence on their daughters. It seemed to me that the heritability would be a lot higher in some cases. if any one has more info it would be appreciated.

I had left a VM with the beef specialist @ ISU on the 8th and they finally returned a call today. Their best indicator for heredibility of milk production in beef cows was through the angus association and according to their findings milking ability is only.14 % inherited.

Thanks everyone for the information and links. (thumbsup)
I would still be interested to hear if there is any information on how the different traits to do with milk production and udder type are inherited. From all these articles it appears to be very low % heritability. This is a bit confusing because one of the reasons I was interested was that we have daughters of one bull that all seem to have high milk production and the bull is not from a high milk production line!

Now I personally think that udder quality is a trait that must have Strong hereditary value. EXT & 5522 daughters will have udders that will last longer than the cows teeth. I've never had a bad uddered cow out of either sire.

CAB said:

Now I personally think that udder quality is a trait that must have Strong hereditary value. EXT & 5522 daughters will have udders that will last longer than the cows teeth. I've never had a bad uddered cow out of either sire.

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(lol) That's how our Diamond Captain Mark 27C and Circle M Ghost Rider 10G's are. At 11 plus years they still have good udders, not sure about their teeth!

CAB said:

Now I personally think that udder quality is a trait that must have Strong hereditary value. EXT & 5522 daughters will have udders that will last longer than the cows teeth. I've never had a bad uddered cow out of either sire.

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That's because of all the Emulous breeding. Go figure. Too bad, the AAA gives the Emulous lines a low $B figure, all for the sake of promoting the 100YW EPD cattle.
I guess every breed has its "mafia".

GB