The variance and covariance components, heritability for direct and maternal effects, correlations between direct and maternal effects and permanent environmental component of variance were estimated, using the REML methodology for birth weight (BW), weaning weight adjusted for 205 days (W205), weights at 365 (W365) and at 550 (W550) days of age in Tabapuã animals. Maternal effect and the association between direct and maternal effects on growth traits were estimated. Animal records from 1978 to 2002 are from Fazenda Água Milagrosa, located at São Paulo State. The direct and maternal heritability were, respectively, 0.32, 0.10; 0.20, 0.17; 0.21, 0.06 and 0.16; 0.03, for birth weight, weaning weight, weights at 365 and at 550 days of age. The correlations between direct and maternal effects for the same sequence of weights were -0.10; -0.20; -0.11 and -0.15. The fractions of permanent environmental of the phenotypic variance were 1.41x10-6; 2.5x10-7; 2,4x10-7 and 4.0x10-6. The inclusion of maternal effect is recommended for growth traits evaluation of Tabapuã animals for selection purpose.
beef cattle; maternal effect; genetic parameters; genetic correlation; growth traits; Tabapuã
