Effects of Sample Size on Heritability Estimates for Field Carcass Characters in Wagyu Population

概要

論文の詳細を見る
A study was made to investigate the effects of sample size on the heritability estimates for carcass characters in Japanese Black population. The carcass records of 5, 000 steers which were sampled randomly from a total of 19, 170 steers as a temporary population. The animals were produced and finished in Miyazaki prefecture during 1989 to 1993. Each sample for calculation of the heritability estimate and standard error were sampled randomly from the temporary population of 5, 000 animals. Sampling trials were repeated ten times. Estimation of the heritability and standard error were conducted using the Method III reported by Henderson and the LSMLMW method developed by Harvey. The results obtained are as follows: (1) The range of the heritability estimate was comparatively large when the sample size was 100 to 400. (2) It needs more than 800 animals to obtain the range of less than 0.2. (3) The average heritability decreased gradually as the sample size increase, and it became almost constant value when the sample size was more than 400.<BR>Considering the results above, it may be concluded that the heritability for carcass characters should be calculated using the carcass records of more than 800 animals, and that the heritability value should be determined by the average estimates more than several trials.
日本暖地畜産学会の論文