Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20160
Title: Genetic Parameters for Methane Production and Relationships with Production Traits in Australian Beef Cattle
Contributor(s): Donoghue, K A (author); Bird-Gardiner, T L  (author); Arthur, P F (author); Herd, Robert M  (author)orcid ; Hegarty, Roger  (author)
Publication Date: 2015
Open Access: Yes
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/20160
Open Access Link: http://www.aaabg.org/aaabghome/AAABG21papers/Donoghue21114.pdfOpen Access Link
Abstract: This paper reports heritability estimates for methane traits and genetic relationships with production traits in beef cattle. Traits recorded during the methane test period included dry matter intake (DMI), test liveweight (TWT), methane production (MPR) and methane yield (MY; MPR/DMI). Two methods of calculating residual methane traits (RMP) were evaluated. Production traits included birth (BWT), weaning (WWT), yearling (YWT) and final (FWT) liveweight. Heritabilities for MPR, MY and RMP traits were moderate (0.19 to 0.27), indicating that there is potential to use genetic improvement to reduce methane emissions in Australian beef cattle. MPR was moderately genetically correlated with MY (0.50) and RMP traits (0.50 to 0.63). However, MPR was also moderately to highly genetically correlated (0.36 to 0.86) with weight traits. Methane yield and RMP traits, however, were lowly to moderately genetically correlated (-0.06 to 0.45) with weight traits. These results indicate that selection for lower MPR would have a negative impact on growth in beef cattle. Selection for reduced MY or RMP, however, would lead to reduced MPR with minimal impact on animal productivity. The use of a ratio trait, like MY, in animal breeding is generally undesirable, thus selection on RMP traits is a better alternative.
Publication Type: Conference Publication
Conference Details: AAABG 2015: 21st Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Lorne, Australia, 28th - 30th September, 2015
Source of Publication: Proceedings of the Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics, v.21, p. 114-117
Publisher: Association for the Advancement of Animal Breeding and Genetics (AAABG)
Place of Publication: Armidale, Australia
ISSN: 1328-3227
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 070201 Animal Breeding
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 300305 Animal reproduction and breeding
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 830301 Beef Cattle
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 100401 Beef cattle
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: E1 Refereed Scholarly Conference Publication
Publisher/associated links: http://www.aaabg.org/aaabghome/proceedings21.php
Appears in Collections:Conference Publication
School of Environmental and Rural Science

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