BREEDING A LINE OF POLLED GERMAN SIMMENTA LS

The breeding programme has been carried out since 1974 at the Bayerisc he Haupt-und Landgestut Schwaiganger. During the first period, 6 found er animals (polled or with scurs) were selected from the total Bavaria n population of Simmental cattle. At the beginning selection was based solely on phenotype, but since 1982 genotypes have been assigned acco rding to a three locus model for horn status (polled, scurs, horns). T he results of progeny tests on horn status from 29 sires (12 in Al) wi th a total of 726 scored progeny are analysed. In addition, the result s of embryo transfer programmes with 5 polled cows with 23 scored prog eny are shown. In test matings the segregation of the allels at the P- Locus (P and p) follow the expected Mendelian distribution only under the following conditions: absence of modifying allels at the Sc-Locus (Sc=Scurs) which act epistatic to P (genotype: P-scsc). To select bull s for test matings the following criteria are important: horn status p olled and pointed head shape; absence of female progeny with scurs. Wh en these criteria are observed, breeding values in horn status can be estimated with high accuracy in German Simmentals.