Rear Teat Placement, Holstein Association USA

The trait rear teat placement first appeared as a primary linear trait in the August, 2006 genetic updates.

Background information:

Rear teat placement measures the distance between the rear teats. On the 50 point scale,
1= 4.5 inches between rear teats; 25 = 2.0 inches distance; 50 = crossed teats. Every 10 points is equal to 1.0 inch distance between the rear teats. Holstein classifiers starting recording this trait in January 2003.

This trait has a heritability of 32%. It has good agreement with evaluations from other countries as shown by the genetic correlations.

Correlation matrix for: REAR TEAT PLACEMENT
AUS	BEL	CAN	CHE	DEU	DFS	ESP	EST	FRA	GBR	ITA	NLD	NZL
0.91	0.93	0.93	0.87	0.94	0.92	0.94	0.93	0.93	0.96	0.96	0.95	0.89

Presentation:

Genetic values will be presented as STAs with negative values labeled as Wide and positive values labeled as Close. In the linear profile, we will be placing rear teat placement so that it follows front teat placement and comes before teat length.

Rear teat placement will be included into the Udder Composite (UDC) in May, 2007.