Genetic parameters estimation for milkability traits recorded with flowmeters in Italian Brown Swiss

Data on milkability of dairy cows have been collected with two different methods in Brown Swiss cows in Italy: the first producing a data set consisting of 13,177 observations, one for each cows collected with a milking machine separating milk produced in each quarter, while 1,918 observations, two for each cow, were collected with flowmeters. REML estimates of genetic parameters for comparable milkability traits are consistent for the two data sets. All the estimates calculated on flowmeter data are affected by high standard errors due to small size of sample. If further analysis on a larger data set will confirm estimates found, flowmeters will be a new tool available for genetic improvement