Genetic analysis of calf market weight and carcass traits in Japanese Black cattle

Heritabilities of and genetic correlations between additive direct and maternal genetic effects for calf market weight, and additive direct genetic effects for carcass traits, were estimated for Japanese Black cattle by REML procedures under 2-trait animal models. Data were collected from calf and carcass markets in Hyogo and Tottori prefectures and analyzed separately by prefecture. Calf market weight was measured on 42,745 and 23,566 calves in Hyogo and Tottori, respectively. Only the fattening animals with calf market weight were extracted from the carcass database and used for estimation. The carcass traits analyzed were carcass weight, ribeye area, rib thickness, subcutaneous fat thickness, yield estimate, beef marbling score, and 4 meat characters (color, brightness, firmness, and texture). Direct and maternal heritabilities for calf market weight were estimated to be 0.22 and 0.07 in Hyogo, and 0.37 and 0.15 in Tottori, respectively. The estimates of heritabilities for carcass traits were moderate to high in both prefectures. The estimates of direct-maternal genetic correlations for calf market weight were positive (0.17) in Hyogo and negative (-0.63) in Tottori. The direct effect for calf market weight was positively correlated with the direct effect for carcass weight (0.87 and 0.56 in Hyogo and Tottori, respectively) but negatively correlated with the direct effect for beef marbling score (-0.10 in both prefectures). The estimates of genetic correlations between the maternal effect for calf market weight and the direct effects for carcass traits varied from -0.13 to 0.34 in Hyogo and from -0.14 to 0.15 in Tottori. Because direct and maternal genetic effects for early growth traits can be evaluated from calf market weight data in the production system of Japanese Black cattle, this information should be incorporated into selection and mating schemes of the breed.