Our data included 119,205 first-parity, test-day records from 15,002 Holste
ins in 134 Georgia farms with temperature and humidity data from 21 weather
stations throughout Georgia. The test-day model included the effects of he
rd test date, days-in-milk (DIM) classes, age, milking frequency, general a
dditive effect, random regression on the heat-humidity index for heat-toler
ance additive effect, general permanent environment, and the random regress
ion on the heat-humidity index for a permanent environment. The general eff
ects, which corresponded to effects in the current repeatability models, we
re assumed to be correlated with the heat-tolerance effects. Variance compo
nents were estimated by REML. For heat-humidity indices below 72, heritabil
ity for milk was 0.17, and additive variance of heat tolerance was 0. For a
heat-humidity index of 86 (which would correspond to temperatures of 36 de
grees C at 50% humidity), the additive variance of heat tolerance was as hi
gh as for general effect, and the genetic correlation between the two effec
ts was -0.36. Results for fat and protein were similar. Current selection f
or production reduces heat tolerance. Joint selection for heat tolerance an
d production is possible.