ARS Home
» Northeast Area
» Beltsville, Maryland (BARC)
» Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
» Animal Genomics and Improvement Laboratory
» AIP
» About
» USDA dairy evaluation history
History of USDA dairy evaluations (1862–2013)
Major events | Evaluation calculation | Computing sites | Organizational names | Resources
Major events
| Year | Event |
| 1862 | Department of Agriculture created by President Abraham Lincoln (USDA history) and land-grant colleges established through the Morrill Act (milestone document) |
| 1895 | USDA begins collecting milk and fat production records of individual cows |
| 1908 | USDA hires Helmer Rabild (photo) to organize a national milk-recording program after his success in organizing the first State program in Michigan (photo) |
| 1912 | Inbreeding experiment begins with repeated sire-daughter matings (report) |
| 1918 | USDA leases many of its young bulls to farmers to develop progeny-tested sires; a total of 1,200 bulls were leased over the next 40 years (photo) |
| 1922 | USDA's Bureau of Animal Industry (Sewall Wright) defines relationships among animals and inbreeding coefficients (biography, photo) |
| 1925 | Sorting and tabulating of cow records on electric machines (photo) Dairy breeds described and yields compared (report) |
| 1935 | Uniform series of eartags developed to allow unique identification of all cows tested by Dairy Herd Improvement Associations (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) Milk records available for only about 2% of dairy cows (photo 1, photo 2) |
| 1936 | First national sire evaluations calculated from daughter-dam comparisons (photo 1, photo 2) |
| 1947 | Crossbreeding trial of Holsteins, Jerseys, and Red Danes completed (photo, report) |
| 1949 | Research herd includes Holstein cows with 75% inbreeding, the highest ever recorded (report) |
| 1959 | IBM 705 computer replaces more than 100 employees and 100 individual adding machines |
| 1961 | Laboratory moves from Washington, DC, to Beltsville, MD |
| 1962 | Sire evaluations computed using herdmate comparisons, which better account for differences in management (photo) |
| 1964 | National cow evaluations replace regional evaluations of processing centers (photo) |
| 1974 | Modified contemporary comparison, which better accounted for genetic trend, used in computing genetic evaluations (photo) |
| 1976 | Mexican Holstein milk yield evaluated by USDA for next 20 years |
| 1977 | Protein and solid-not-fat evaluations computed (photo) |
| 1978 | Type evaluations for breeds other than Holstein calculated at USDA |
| 1981 | Maternal ancestors incorporated in cow evaluation |
| 1989 | Animal model evaluations use relationships among all cows and bulls (photo) |
| 1997 | Web site replaces computer tapes for distribution of genetic evaluations |
| 1999 | Laboratory moves (within Beltsville) from building 263 to building 005 National Dairy Shrine survey ranks genetic evaluations the 2nd most positive and significant change in the last 50 years (artificial insemination is 1st) |
| 2001 | Laboratory survives direct hit by tornado (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4) |
| 2008 | Laboratory celebrates 100 years (agenda, history, puzzles, slide show, registrants, sponsors, research leaders) |
| 2009 | First official genomic evaluations |
| 2013 | Calculation and distribution of genetic evaluations transferred to Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding; USDA continues research on evaluation methodology |
Evaluation calculation
Changes shown in red
| Year | Evaluation changed | No./ year | Release months | Traits included |
| 1936 | Bull (new) | 1 | Summer (exact month varied) | Milk, fat |
| 1940 | Bull | 12 | Each month (bulls with many additional daughters since last evaluation re-evaluated) | Milk, fat |
| 1960 | Bull | 4 | February, May, August, November | Milk, fat |
| 1964 | Cow | 2 | January, July | Milk, fat |
| 1967 | Bull/cow | 3 | January, May, September | Milk, fat |
| 1977 | Bull | 3 | January, May, September | Milk, fat, protein |
| 1978 | Bull/cow | 2 | January, July | Milk, fat, protein (bulls only), type* |
| 1985 | Cow | 2 | January, July | Milk, fat, protein, type* |
| 1994 | Bull | 2 | January, July | Milk, fat, protein, somatic cell score (SCS), productive life (PL), type* |
| 1995 | Cow | 2 | January, July | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, type* |
| 1997 | Bull/cow | 4 | February, May, August, November | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, type* |
| 2002 | Bull | 4 | February, May, August, November | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, calving ease (CE), type* |
| 2003 | Bull/cow | 4 | February, May, August, November | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), daughter pregnancy rate (DPR), type* |
| 2006 | Bull | 4 | February, May, August, November | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), stillbirth (SB), DPR, type* |
| 2008 | Bull/cow | 3 | January, April, August | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), SB (bulls only), DPR, type* |
| 2010 | Bull/cow | 3 | April, August, December | Milk, fat, protein, SCS, PL, CE (bulls only), SB (bulls only), DPR, cow conception rate (CCR), heifer conception rate (HCR), type* |
| *USDA calculated type evaluations for breeds other than Holstein; Holstein type evaluations calculated by Holstein Association USA | ||||
Computing sites
| Year | Owner | Location | Computer |
| 1959 | Commodity Credit branch, USDA | New Orleans, LA | IBM 705 |
| 1965 | Navy Bureau of Personnel | Arlington, VA | |
| 1968 | Computer Center, Statistical Reporting Service, USDA | Washington, DC | |
| 1970 | Sears and Roebuck, Inc. | Rockville, MD | IBM 360 |
| 1973 | National Agricultural Library, USDA | Beltsville, MD | IBM 360 |
| 1975 | Washington Computer Center, USDA | Washington, DC | IBM 370 |
| 1987 | USDA Computing Center | Kansas City, MO | IBM 370 |
| 1985 | Cornell University Database maintained at USDA Computing Center |
Ithaca, NY Kansas City, MO |
IBM 3090 IBM 370 |
| 1990 | Cornell University Database maintained at Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL), USDA |
Ithaca, NY Beltsville, MD |
IBM 3090 IBM 9370 |
| 1993 | AIPL (evaluation processing and database) | Beltsville, MD | IBM RS6000 P series |
| 2002 | AIPL (evaluation processing and database) | Beltsville, MD | IBM X series servers |
Organizational names
| Year | Laboratory name | Institute/Bureau name |
| 1908 | Dairy Division | Bureau of Animal Industry |
| 1926 | Dairy Introduction Section | Bureau of Dairy Industry |
| 1929 | Dairy Herd Improvement Investigations | Bureau of Dairy Industry |
| 1954 | Dairy Herd Improvement Section | Dairy Cattle Research Branch |
| 1968 | Dairy Herd Improvement Investigations Unit | Animal Science Research Institute |
| 1972 | Animal Improvement Programs Laboratory (AIPL) | Animal Physiology and Genetics Institute |
| 1979 | AIPL | Animal Sciences Institute |
| 1986 | AIPL | Livestock and Poultry Science Institute |
| 2000 | AIPL | Animal and Natural Resources Institute |
| 2012 | AIPL | Beltsville Agricultural Research Center |
Resources
Hodgson, R. 1956. Dairy production research in the United States Department of Agriculture. J. Dairy Sci. 39:674–682.
Hodgson, R. 1986. Dairy production research by the United States Department of Agriculture 1895–1980: A historical review. USDA Misc. Publ. No. 1447, 64 pp.
King, G. 1973. The National Cooperative Dairy Herd Improvement Program: History, purpose, and organization. Dairy Herd Improv. Lett. 49(4).
Summary of detailed changes in USDA-DHIA genetic evaluations (1989–2013)
Compiled by Paul VanRaden
