PSVIII-6 - Genetic features of Russian Simmental cattle population different origin derived by assessing milk production and fertility traits

Since the beginning of the 20th century, over 43 thousand animals of Simmental cattle and related breeds have been imported to Russia from Europe. This had a significant impact on the selection intensity and genetic structure within the pale-motley population. The research included 42 breeding herds from 14 regions of Russia. The EBV using the BLUPF90 program based on the ANIMAL MODEL procedure was calculated. Totally of 1471 bulls by using 61816 daughters were estimated. The heritability coefficients showed moderate variability for milk yield (MY) h²=0.140, fat percentage (FP) h²=0.194, protein percentage (PP) h²=0.184 and live weight h²=0.163, as an indirect predictor for meat production. The variability for fertility features like number of inseminations per conception and days open was h²=0.073 and h²=0.061, respectively. Genetic correlation between MY and FP was r_g=0.149, and for MY and PP – r_g=0.180, while between FP and PP – r_g=0.226. The average bulls’ EBV for milk traits in Red Holsteins consisted +23 kg MY, +0.002% FP and +0.001% PP, by Austrian Simmental +10 kg MY, +0.013% FP and +0.002% PP. For Russian Simmental origin animals was signed negative selection response for MY (-23 kg), FP (-0.001%) and PP (-0.003%). High average EBV for imported Simmental cows were revealed +146 kg MY, +0.009% FP and +0.004% PP, while in Russian Simmental we got negative values for MY -70 kg and PP -0.004% but only for FP was showed positive level +0.001%. Simmental breed improvement strategy in Russia focused not only to increasing milk yield but also to improving milk compositions with stabilizing cows’ reproductive traits using the world gene pool of related breeds from Europe. The study was funded by Ministry of Science and Higher Education No.0445-2021-0016