Sustainable Livestock Systems

Area of Expertise
Specialist in animal breeding, genetics and statistics.

I have been involved in implementation and development of national and international genetic evaluations for various livestock species but especially dairy cattle for the past 16 years.  Research and experience gained in genetic evaluations over the years has enabled me to publish the first and second editions of the text ‘Linear models for prediction of animal breeding values.’  Currently I am a member of the Technical Committee for Interbull, a body that provides international genetic evaluation for dairy and beef cattle.

In additional I have been invited as a consultant by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to review articles on capacity building for sustainable use of animal genetic resources in developing countries.

Role in EGENES

I am a senior geneticist in EGNES and I am technically in charge of the national genetic evaluations for diary cattle in the United Kingdom for production traits, udder health traits, fertility and herd life; various production and maternal traits in beef cattle and sheep.   The implementation of improvements and developments in the current system and the application of QA on various aspects of the genetic evaluation process.  Lectures on predictions of breeding value in the University of Edinburgh MSc course on principles of genetic improvement

Research Interest

• Understanding and application of genetic evaluations  from  test day models
• Incorporation of genetic marker information into genetic evaluations
• Genetic relatedness across  national dairy populations.

Selected  publications

• Mrode, R and Coffey, M. (2008). Understanding cow evaluations in univariate and multivariate animal and random regression models. J. Dairy Sci. 91:794-801
• Mrode, R., Kearney, R., Biffani,  S., Coffey, M. and Canavesi, F. (2007)Genetic relationships in the Holstein cow population of three major dairy countries. Interbull Bulletin 37:29-32
• Mrode, R, White, I.M.S and Brotherstone, S. (2006) Investigations into the use of a random regression reduced animal model for variance component estimation and breeding value prediction.  Interbull Bulletin 35:195-199
• Mrode R.A. (2005) Linear models for the prediction of animal breeding values. Second edition, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, UK, 344pp
• Mrode, R.A. and Swanson, G.J.T. (2004) Calculating cow and daughter yield deviations and partitioning of genetic evaluations under a random regression model. Livestock Production Science. 86:253-260.
• Mrode, R.A. and Swanson, G.J.T. (2003) Estimation of genetic parameters for the somatic cell counts in the first three lactations using random regression. Livestock Production Science. 79:239-247.
• Mrode, R.A., Swanson, G.J.T. and Lindberg, C.M.(2002) Efficiency of part lactation test day records for genetic evaluations using fixed and random regression models. Animal Science, 76:189 -195.