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The total meat yield in a beef cattle production cycle is economically very important and depends on the number of calves born per year or birth season, being directly related to reproductive potential. Accumulated Productivity (ACP) is an index that expresses a cow's capacity to give birth regularly at a young age and to wean animals of greater body weight. Using data from cattle participating in the “Program for Genetic Improvement of the Nelore Breed” (PMGRN — Nelore Brasil), bi-trait analyses were performed using the Restricted Maximum Likelihood method based on an ACP animal model and the following traits: age at first calving (AFC), female body weight adjusted for 365 (BW365) and 450 (BW450) days of age, and male scrotal circumference adjusted for 365 (SC365), 450 (SC450), 550 (SC550) and 730 (SC730) days of age. Median estimated ACP heritability was 0.19 and the genetic correlations with AFC, BW365, BW450, SC365, SC450, SC550 and SC730 were 0.33, 0.70, 0.65, 0.08, 0.07, 0.12 and 0.16, respectively. ACP increased and AFC decreased over time, revealing that the selection criteria genetically improved these traits. Selection based on ACP appears to favor the heaviest females at 365 and 450 days of age who showed better reproductive performance as regards AFC. Scrotal circumference was not genetically associated with ACP.

Summary Candidate gene strategy has been proposed to direct the search for quantitative trait loci, and polymorphisms at these loci have been associated with several production traits in bovine. A total of 211 animals resulting from crosses between Nelore females with sires from either Aberdeen Angus, Canchim and Simmental breeds were analyzed for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) in the κ-casein, β-lactoglobulin (LGB) and growth hormone GH genes. Average daily gain from birth to weaning (GBW) and from weaning to yearling (GWY) were analyzed by a statistical model comprising RFLP genotypes and their interaction effects. Significant effects (p

Identification of genotype–environment interaction in beef cattle may help the artificial selection process and increase the efficiency of genetic evaluation on sires submitted to different environments. Post-weaning traits are economically important and are more influenced by the effects of genotype–environment interactions than pre-weaning traits. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate whether this interaction has any effect on bodyweight at 365, 450, and 550 days of age in Nellore cattle reared in Brazil. Analyses considered the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, and São Paulo. Genetic parameters were estimated for each trait, per state, using the restricted maximum likelihood method, in two-trait analysis under an animal model. Genetic correlations regarding the same trait in two different states were used to evaluate the effect of the genotype–environment interaction on the traits studied. Genetic correlation estimates smaller than 0.80 between observations for the same trait in different states were taken to be indicative of genotype–environment interaction. It was observed that there is evidence of genotype–environment interaction in some of the states studied, and they tend to increase when the weight measurements are made at later ages. From this, it was concluded that selection conducted using data from one state might be different from selection based on data from another state. Summaries of bulls that consider different environments could contribute greatly to the genetic improvement of livestock.

A population of 1398 Canchim (CA) cattle was genotyped to assess the association of an insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) gene microsatellite with phenotypic variation and estimated breeding values of pre-weaning, weaning and post-weaning growth traits. After an initial analysis, the IGF1 genotype only had a significant effect (P < 0.05) on birth weight (BW) and weaning weight adjusted to 240 days (WW240). For these two traits, direct and maternal breeding values were estimated using the restricted maximum likelihood (reml). Two analyses were carried out. In the first (Model I), all fixed effects were fitted. In the second (Model II), the fixed effect of the IGF1 genotype was omitted. The estimated genetic and phenotypic components of variance were similar for every trait in both models. For Model I, estimated direct and maternal heritabilities were 0.26 and 0.16 for BW and 0.23 and 0.14 for WW240 respectively. The genetic and phenotypic correlations between BW and WW240 were 0.38 and 0.38 (Model I) and 0.19 and 0.38 (Model II) respectively. Fifty animals were classified according to their direct and maternal breeding values for both traits. Spearman rank-order correlation between animal rankings in the two models was used to assess the effect of including the IGF1 genotype in the model. Non-significant values from this correlation were indicative of a difference in breeding value rankings between the two approaches. The IGF1 gene was found to be associated with phenotypic variation and breeding values in the early phase of growth.