Next generation breeding values

The current benchmark for genetic value prediction is program-wide multivariate Best Linear Unbiased Prediction of measured traits, from which harvest age traits are predicted and then combined into economic indices. This is a very flexible framework, but is demanding to implement and not many programs have done so. Models for hybrid populations, calculation of standard errors for harvest traits and indices for genotypes, families and larger deployment units, economic models for risk traits, and integration of synthetic variables derived from markers information into evaluation are all in the process of operational adoption There are other advances, ranging from accounting for indirect genetic effects to integration of genome-wide molecular information for which there is still much work needed to allow them to be used on a program-wide scale. For operational implementation, both the computational systems and their supporting database systems need to be developed to store and process the increasing amounts of information used.