Influence of the expected progeny difference in price of dose of Nelore semen

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the commercial price of bull’s semen and  estimate it’s correlation with genetic characteristics (from the Summary of Program of Genetic Improvement of the Nelore Breed – PMGRN) and with the prizes from Competitions of National Association of Brazil’s Nelore Breeders (ANCB), and verify what influences the final price of bull semen. Data were collected from both ANCB and PMGRN’s Summary 2008. The PROC COR’s SAS V8.0 program was used. Results show that, only the bulls whose calf had won prizes, from the first to the third place, had correlation with the bull’s semen, with 60,6%, 60,2% and 56,5%, respectively. About the heritability characteristics, the only one which had correlation with semen price was birth of weight, with an influence of 17,6% on the bull’s semen price. The most important genetic characteristics when aiming at improving cattle’s genotype in a farm have not been used to determine the price of each dose of commercial semen. Therefore, the present investigation showed that the cattle’s phenotipe has influenced more than inherited characteristics.