The objectives of this work were to estimate the genetic parameters and the genetic trends of the direct and maternal effects for the trait days to gain 160 kg (D160) in the pre-weaning period, and of the direct effect for the trait days to gain 240 kg (D240) in the post-weaning period, of animals of Nellore breed, born from 1965 to 2001 in the Northeast region of Brazil. The analyses were carried out using the MTDFREML software. For D160 the […]

A deterministic simulation was used to compare six breeding schemes based on different levels of performance recording: (1) only body weights, (2) only dairy traits, (3) body weights and reproductive traits, (4) dairy and reproductive traits, (5) body weights and dairy traits and (6) body weights, reproductive and dairy traits. Other factors were also studied, as the level of usage of proven sires, variations in the economic value of slaughter weight and eliminating progeny testing in the beef herd tier […]

Data simulated with five levels of pedigree errors (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%) and three heritabilities (.10, .30 and .60) were used to verify the effect of pedigree errors on the selection during 10 generations. The largest phenotypic values and efficiency on the individual selection, in overall, were obtained by BLUP without errors, followed by those with 5, 10, 15 and 20% of error. The average superiority in genetic gain of the BLUP per generation, in the various error […]

Simulated populations were used to verify the effect of errors in the selection of males in the estimates of genetic gains along ten generations of selection, using BLUP. Five levels of errors in the selection of males (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%) and three heritabilites (.10, .30 e .60) were used. Twenty males and 200 females were selected by BLUP. After the selection of 20 males in each generation, 1, 2, 3 and 4 sires were changed by others […]