Heritability of docility and correlation with body weight and linear body measurements in cattle

This study aimed to estimate heritability of docility and its correlations with body weight and linear body measurements in cattle. The number of animals tested for docility was 132. Fixed factors such as breed, sex, hump status and age contemporary group were fitted in the models. The body parameters measured were body weight, body length, heart girth and height at withers. Docility was scored on a scale of 1 to 5. The data was analysed using restricted maximum likelihood method. The results indicate mean docility score of 2.82 ± 1.51. The heritability of docility was 0.23 ± 0.05 which implies that docility in the cattle population can respond to selection. The heritability of body weight (0.013 ± 0.004) and the linear body measurements (range: 0.001 ± 0.15 to 0.02 ± 0.20) were very low. The genetic and phenotypic correlation between docility and body weight was 0.48 ± 0.07 and 0.60 ± 0.04 respectively. The genetic and phenotypic correlations between docility and the linear body measurements ranged from -0.99 ± 0.18 to -0.14 ± 0.25 and from 0.09 ± 0.20 to 0.60 ± 0.04 respectively. It was concluded that improvement of docility in the cattle population is possible through mass selection.