This study evaluated the potential of conformation traits (CT), including body width score (BWS), body height (BH), body length (BL), and body depth (BD), for indirect selection of carcass weight (CW) in Hanwoo cows. The analysis utilized 972,305 phenotypic records and 1,652,808 pedigree records. Breeding values were estimated for CT (WEBVCT and PEBVCT) and CW (WEBVCW and PEBVCW), based on the presence or absence of CW observations, including a validation subset of 10,040 animals. A multiple correlation coefficient of 0.47 was estimated from the regression of WEBVCW on PEBVCT. To reduce dimensionality and multicollinearity among the conformation traits, principal component analysis was conducted. From this analysis, the first two principal components explained 93% and 4% of the total variance, respectively. Regression of WEBVCW on these two components estimated the coefficient for the first principal component at 5.56 ± 0.11, with a multiple correlation coefficient of 0.46. This suggests that conformation traits can serve as effective indicators for indirect selection, potentially contributing to the genetic improvement of carcass weight.
Han et al. (Tue,) studied this question.