Effects of the Sire and District of A1 on Cow Fertility

Contents: Insemination results per bull and district of AI (or technician) were analysed in a 5 year study. Return Rates (RR) were registered between Oct. 1976 and Sept. 1981. Data included 856 850 first AI made by 56 technicians. Depending on years, AI were made with the semen of 81 to 103 bulls of 5 breeds. Only bulls which performed at least 500 AI's per year were taken into account. A first analysis made with the data of 14 bulls represented during the 5 years show that: 1) the breed, the bull within breed and district of AI (or technician) were the most important factors influencing RR. RR were less affected by other factors such as the size of the herd or the year. 2) results given for successive RR were nearly identical from RR24 to RR90. 3) the effect of breed, bull and district of AI were less important on the variable illustrating more specificially late return in oestrus (RR25–300). Yearly analysis involving larger number of bulls gave very similar results to the 5 year study. Variability due to the district of AI (or technician) and to the bull were of the same magnitude. Maximum differences between bulls or districts varied from 10% (RR24) to 20% (RR90). As strong relationships between bull and district of AI or technician were found, complementary analyses from the 1978 set of data were made to investigate how the variability due to the district of AI could introduce bias when estimating bull's RR. Comparisons between models were made on the basis of correlations between a reference model including a district effect and reduced models. For RR24 and RR90 correlations between solutions were always higher than 0.97. This show that if sufficient number of AI's per bull are performed no major bias is introduced and the district of AI or technician is neglectable when evaluating bull's RR.