Genetic parameters for lactose percentage in the milk of Polish Holstein-Friesians

Genetic parameters for lactose percentage in the milk of Polish Holstein-Friesian cows were estimated using 48,859 test day records from six lactations of 8,418 cows and the Gibbs sampling method. The multiple-trait random regression model was applied for data from the first and subsequent (up to the sixth) lactations treated as two traits. Variance components and heritabilities changed in a similar way through the first and subsequent lactations, reaching the highest values at peripheries and relatively stable values in the middle of lactations. All estimates were smaller in the first than in the later parities. Heritabilities of daily lactose percentage ranged from 0.17 to 0.31 with a mean of 0.24 (SD=0.034), and from 0.23 to 0.36 with a mean of 0.28 (SD=0.026) in first and subsequent lactations. Genetic correlations for lactose percentage between the same days of the first and subsequent parities were less than 0.30, with the average equal to 0.26 (SD=0.047) and the minimum (less than 0.15) occurring in the first days after calving.