The objective of this work was to estimate the genetic parameters, product-moment and rank correlations between breeding values, and also correlated responses for reproductive traits using bivariate analysis of total milk production (PL) and the age at the first calving (IPP), or calving intervals (IDP), or days open (PSERV). Records from the NPZGJRA/IZ/APTA/SAA-SSP breeding program of the first five lactations of 1406 cows of Mantiqueira ecotype; daughters of 113 sires, with calvings from 1952 to 1997 were used. The MTDFREML system was used in the analyses with models for the PL, IDP, and PSERV traits which included the fixed effects of year-season of calving, linear and quadratic terms of calving age as covariate and the random animal effects; environment permanent and error. In the PL analysis, the fixed effect of lactation period was also included. The model for IPP consisted of the year-season fixed effects of calving and the random effects of animal and error. Genetic correlations of PL with IPP, IDP and PSERV were -0.63, -0.41 and -0.37, respectively, representing favorable associations of milk yield and reproductive traits. Direct, correlated responses and efficiency of the indirect selection were, respectively, -0.8904, 1.0165 and -0.8759, for IPP; -3.3520, 2.4561 and 1.3598, for IDP and -3.0120, 2.4544 and -1.2272, for PSERV. These values suggest that the direct response for IPP would be more effective than the indirect, being the opposite for IDP and PSERV. Product-moment and rank correlations of PL with the reproductive traits were high, indicating linear and favorable association between predicted breeding values.
dairy cattle; rank correlation; Mantiqueira ecotype; REML methodology; animal model; correlated response
