Cindy M. Wood Virginia Tech

Publish Date: June 3, 2006

One way to improve performance in a herd is through selection of genetically superior animals, with the selection based on an estimate of the genetic merit of the animals. How well this genetic merit is estimated (accuracy) is important, because accuracy predicts the potential rate of genetic progress. The higher the accuracy, the more genetic progress is possible, assuming that the genetically superior animals have been selected.