Spatialization of breeding values of Brangus animals associated with climatic, physical, and socio-economic factors

This study was realized to analyze the combinations of climatic, physical, and socio-economic variables on distribution of breeding values for performance characteristics and scrotal circumference of Brangus cattle. Records of 84,703 Brangus animals, born from 2000 to 2010 distributed in 65 farms in Brazil were used. The characteristics analyzed were average daily gain from birth to weaning and from weaning to yearling (WW and YW), visual scores of conformations (WC and YC), muscle score (WM and YM), precocity score (WP and YS), and size score (WS and YS) at weaning and yearling and scrotal circumference (SC) at yearling. Components of (co)variance estimated through the animal model employing methodology to AIREML. Mean estimates of direct heritability obtained for visual scores at weaning (WC 0.16, WM 0.16, WP 0.19, and WS 0.22) were lower than those obtained at yearling (YC 0.28, YM 0.26, YP 0.24, and YS 0.40). WW had heritability greater than YW (0.27 and 0.12) and a heritability of 0.36 obtained for SC. Canonical, discriminant, and cluster analyses were performed in the SAS® 9.4 program. Three clusters of genetic values averages per farm were formed according to climatic, physical, and socio-economic variables. Brangus animals are from states of RS, PR, SP, MG, GO, MG, and MS. The highest breeding values were strongly related to thermal amplitude and municipality area. Spatial distribution of the breeding value of Brangus animals can help in the development of environmental indices, genetic evaluations, and the choice of animals for certain environments.