History of USDA dairy evaluations (1862–2013)

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Major events  |  Evaluation calculation  |  Computing sites  |  Organizational names  |  Resources

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Major events

Year	Event
1862	Department of Agriculture introduced by President AbrahamLincoln and established by the 1865 Morrill Act
1895	USDA begins collecting milk and fat production records of individual cows
1908	USDA hires Helmer Rabild (photo) to organize a national milk-recording program after his success in organizing the first State program in Michigan (photo)
1912	Inbreeding experiment begins with repeated sire-daughter matings (photo)
1918	USDA leases many of its young bulls to farmers to develop progeny-tested sires; a total of 1,200 bulls were leased over the next 40 years (photo)
1922	USDA's Bureau of Animal Industry (Sewall Wright) defines relationships among animals and inbreeding coefficients (site 1, site 2, photo)
1925	Sorting and tabulating of cow records on electric machines (photo) Dairy breeds described and yields compared (photo)
1935	Uniform series of eartags developed to allow unique identification of all cows tested by Dairy Herd Improvement Associations (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) Milk records available for only about 2% of dairy cows (photo 1, photo 2)
1936	First national sire evaluations calculated from daughter-dam comparisons (photo 1, photo 2)
1947	Crossbreeding trial of Holsteins, Jerseys, and Red Danes completed (photo)
1949	Research herd includes Holstein cows with 75% inbreeding, the highest ever recorded (photo)
1959	IBM 705 computer replaces more than 100 employees and 100 individual adding machines
1961	Laboratory moves from Washington, DC, to Beltsville, MD
1962	Sire evaluations computed using herdmate comparisons, which better account for differences in management (photo)
1964	National cow evaluations replace regional evaluations of processing centers (photo)
1974	Modified contemporary comparison, which better accounted for genetic trend, used in computing genetic evaluations (photo)
1976	Mexican Holstein milk yield evaluated by USDA for next 20 years
1977	Protein and solid-not-fat evaluations computed (photo)
1978	Type evaluations for breeds other than Holstein calculated at USDA
1981	Maternal ancestors incorporated in cow evaluation
1989	Animal model evaluations use relationships among all cows and bulls (photo)
1997	Web site replaces computer tapes for distribution of genetic evaluations
1999	Laboratory moves (within Beltsville) from building 263 to building 005 National Dairy Shrine survey ranks genetic evaluations the 2nd most positive and significant change in the last 50 years (artificial insemination is 1st)
2001	Laboratory survives direct hit by tornado (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4)
2008	Laboratory celebrates 100 years (agenda, history, puzzles, slide show, registrants, sponsors, research leaders)
2009	First official genomic evaluations
2013	Calculation and distribution of genetic evaluations transferred to Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding; USDA continues research on evaluation methodology

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Evaluation calculation

Changes shown in orange

Year	Evaluation changed	No./ year	Release months	Traits included
1936	Bull (new)	1	Summer (exact month varied)	Milk, fat
1940	Bull	12	Each month (bulls with many additional daughters since last evaluation re-evaluated)	Milk, fat
1960	Bull	4	February, May, August, November	Milk, fat
1964	Cow	2	January, July	Milk, fat
1967	Bull/cow	3	January, May, September	Milk, fat
1977	Bull	3	January, May, September	Milk, fat, protein
1978	Bull/cow	2	January, July	Milk, fat, protein (bulls only), type*
1985	Cow	2	January, July	Milk, fat, protein, type*
1994	Bull	2	January, July	Milk, fat, protein, somatic cell score (SCS), productive life (PL), type*
1995	Cow	2	January, July	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, type*
1997	Bull/cow	4	February, May, August, November	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, type*
2002	Bull	4	February, May, August, November	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, calving ease (CE), type*
2003	Bull/cow	4	February, May, August, November	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), daughter pregnancy rate (DPR), type*
2006	Bull	4	February, May, August, November	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), stillbirth (SB), DPR, type*
2008	Bull/cow	3	January, April, August	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), SB (bulls only), DPR, type*
2010	Bull/cow	3	April, August, December	Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), SB (bulls only), DPR, cow conception rate (CCR), heifer conception rate (HCR), type*
*USDA calculated type evaluations for breeds other than Holstein; Holstein type evaluations calculated by Holstein Association USA

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Computing sites

Year	Owner	Location	Computer
1959	Commodity Credit branch, USDA	New Orleans, LA	IBM 705
1965	Navy Bureau of Personnel	Arlington, VA
1968	Computer Center, Statistical Reporting Service, USDA	Washington, DC
1970	Sears and Roebuck, Inc.	Rockville, MD	IBM 360
1973	National Agricultural Library, USDA	Beltsville, MD	IBM 360
1975	Washington Computer Center, USDA	Washington, DC	IBM 370
1987	USDA Computing Center	Kansas City, MO	IBM 370
1985	Cornell University Database maintained at USDA Computing Center	Ithaca, NY Kansas City, MO	IBM 3090 IBM 370
1990	Cornell University Database maintained at Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL), USDA	Ithaca, NY Beltsville, MD	IBM 3090 IBM 9370
1993	AIPL (evaluation processing and database)	Beltsville, MD	IBM RS6000 P series
2002	AIPL (evaluation processing and database)	Beltsville, MD	IBM X series servers

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Organizational names

Year	Laboratory name	Institute/Bureau name
1908	Dairy Division	Bureau of Animal Industry
1926	Dairy Introduction Section	Bureau of Dairy Industry
1929	Dairy Herd Improvement Investigations	Bureau of Dairy Industry
1954	Dairy Herd Improvement Section	Dairy Cattle Research Branch
1968	Dairy Herd Improvement Investigations Unit	Animal Science Research Institute
1972	Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL)	Animal Physiology and Genetics Institute
1979	AIPL	Animal Sciences Institute
1986	AIPL	Livestock and Poultry Science Institute
2000	AIPL	Animal and Natural Resources Institute
2012	AIPL	Beltsville Agricultural Research Center

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Resources

• Hodgson, R. 1956. Dairy production research in the United States Department of Agriculture. J. Dairy Sci. 39(6):674–682.
  
  
• Hodgson, R. 1986. Dairy production research by the United States Department of Agriculture 1895–1980: A historical review. USDA Misc. Publ. No. 1447, 64 pp.
  
  
• King, G. 1973. The National Cooperative Dairy Herd Improvement Program: History, purpose, and organization. Dairy Herd Improvement Letter 49(4).
  
  
• Summary of detailed changes in USDA-DHIA genetic evaluations since 1989
  • Chronological
  • Topical

Compiled by Paul VanRaden

Last Modified: 04/21/2017