1	Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL)
2	Mission Conduct research to discover, test, and implement improved genetic evaluation techniques for economically important traits of dairy cattle and goats Genetically improve efficiency of dairy animals for yield and fitness
3	Production traits evaluated Yield Milk Fat Protein Component percentage Fat Protein
4	Fitness traits evaluated Type (conformation) Productive life (longevity) Somatic cell score (mastitis resistance) Fertility Daughter pregnancy rate (cow) Estimated relative conception rate (bull) Calving ease and stillbirth (service sire and daughter)
5	U.S. dairy population & yield
6	National Dairy Genetic Evaluation Program
7	Current research Improved evaluations for male and female fertility Improved evaluations of calving traits by accounting for genetic differences by parity DNA information used in evaluations
8	Genomic evaluations Joint project with Bovine Functional Genomics Laboratory Over 38,000 SNP informative for Holsteins Over 6000 bull and cows genotyped so far SNP effects estimated from animals with evaluations Evaluations of young animals Increased accuracy over parent information
9	Current status Field test results distributed for 750 nominated animals Extension to Jersey and Brown Swiss in progress Transition to commercial genotyping labs Extension to cows planned for June
10	Possible impact Genomic evaluations received on bull calves before purchase Genotyping required for bull dams Decreased number of bulls in waiting Marketing based on genomic evaluations Increased rate of genetic improvement
11	Summary Genetic evaluations developed by AIPL are basis of impressive rate of genetic improvement Frequent innovations improve accuracy and add traits of economic importance Genomic information expected to lead to large changes in animal breeding industry