Conformation Recording: Conformation recording of dairy cattle

The ICAR multi dairy breed conformation recording recommendation integrates with the World Holstein-Friesian Federation guidelines on the international harmonization of linear type assessment, trait definition, evaluation standards and publication of type proofs for bulls.

This document contains a list of approved standard traits, which is a list of traits which should be scored by all organisations in the same way to improve further harmonisation on international level, also on Interbull level. The data collected within these recommended standards qualifies for MACE evaluation by Interbull.

Further the document contains a list of 5 traits which are commonly used by organisations in the dairy and dual-purpose breeds world-wide. This list of common standard traits is added to improve harmonisation of these traits too.

Besides giving trait definitions on standard traits, recommendations are given on improvement and transparency of data collection and monitoring classifiers.

The list with standard traits and the standard trait definition for Dairy Cattle can be found in Appendix 1: The standard trait definition for Dairy Cattle.