Stayability in the era of early-challenged females: genetic parameters and correlations with economically relevant traits

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate the variance components, heritabilities and genetic correlations between four new different catego- ries of stayability (STAY48-2, STAY48-3, STAY54-2, STAY54-3) with weight at 240days of age (W240), weight at 450days of age (W450), scrotal circumference at 365days of age (SC365), age at puberty in males (APM), traditional stayability (STAY72), proba- bility of precocious calving at 30months of age (PPC30), ribeye area (REA), rump fat thickness (RFT), residual feed intake (RFI), dry-matter intake (DMI), residual live weight gain (RG) and frame score (FRAME). Records from 80,958 females born between 2000 and 2019, exposed to mating starting at 10months of age, raised on pasture from 508 farms in the central-west, southeast, northeast and northern regions of Brazil that participate in the National Association of Breeders and Researchers (ANCP), were analysed. The (co)variance components were estimated by Bayesian inference in a two-trait animal model. The posterior means of heritability estimates for STAY48-2, STAY48-3, STAY54-2 and STAY54-3 were moderate to low, 0.20, 0.20, 0.22 and 0.22 re- spectively. The traits related to different categories of stayability showed low genetic correlations with male reproductive traits (−0.22 to 0.19), feed efficiency (−0.03 to 0.13), carcass (0.11 to 0.18) and body composition (−0.09 to −0.6), moderate with growth (0.04 to 0.29) and high with sexual precocity (0.88 to 0.93) and fertility (0.65 to 0.73). The heritability estimates of the different categories of stayability indicate genetic improvement for longevity in early challenged females. The genetic correlations with sexual precocity showed that its use as selection criteria is recommended for production systems of younger females challenged in the reproductive season rather than traditional stayability to increase the probability of stayability in the herd.