Estimation of Genetic Parameters on Pre-weaning Growth Traits in Hanwoo

A total of 4,627 records on pre-weaning growth traits, birth weight(BW), weaning weight(WW) and pre-weaning daily gain(ADG) of Hanwoo’s born form 1970 to 2005 were collected from Hanwoo Experiment Station, National Livestock Research Institute. Variance components and heritabilities of BW, WW and ADG were estimated with two models; Model 1 included only direct genetic effect while Mode1 2 included direct genetic, maternal genetic and permanent environmental effects. Direct herit- ability estimates of BW, WW and ADG estimated by model 1 were 0.34, 0.26 and 0.20, respectively. In model 2, direct heritability and maternal genetic heritability estimates were 0.14 and 0.06 for BW, 0.07 and 0.04 for WW and 0.05 and 0.04 for ADG. Estimates of genetic correlation between direct and maternal effect for BW, WW and ADG were 0.58, 0.75 and 0.61, respectively. Genetic correlation coefficients between BW and WW, between BW and ADG, and between WW and ADG were 0.76, 0.62 and 0.99, respectively.