1862 |
A Department of Agriculture is introduced by Lincoln and
established by the 1865 Morrill Act |
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 |
An inbreeding experiment begins with repeated sire-daughter
matings
(photo) |
1918 |
USDA leases many of its young bulls to farmers to develop
proven 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
(site 1,
site 2,
photo) |
1925 |
Sorting and tabulating of cow records is done on electric machines
(photo) |
1925 |
Dairy breeds are described and yields compared
(photo) |
1935 |
A uniform series of eartags was developed to allow unique
identification of all cows tested by DHIA
(photo 1,
photo 2,
photo 3) |
1935 |
Milk records are available for only about 2% of dairy
cows
(photo 1,
photo 2) |
1936 |
The first national
sire evaluations are calculated from daughter-dam comparisons
(photo 1,
photo 2) |
1947 |
A crossbreeding trial of Holsteins, Jerseys, and Red Danes is
completed
(photo)
|
1949 |
The research herd includes Holstein cows with 75% inbreeding, the
highest ever recorded
(photo) |
1959 |
An 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 are computed using herdmate comparisons, which better account for
differences in management (photo) |
1964 |
National cow evaluations replace the regional evaluations of
processing centers
(photo) |
1974 |
The modified contemporary comparison, which better accounted for
genetic trend, is used in computing genetic evaluations
(photo) |
1976 |
Mexican Holstein milk yield is evaluated by USDA for the next 20
years |
1977 |
Protein and solid-not-fat evaluations are computed
(photo) |
1978 |
Type evaluations for breeds other than Holstein are calculated at
USDA |
1981 |
Maternal ancestors are incorporated in cow evaluation |
1989 |
Animal model evaluations use the relationships among all cows and
bulls
(photo) |
1997 |
A website replaces computer tapes for distribution of genetic
evaluations |
1999 |
Laboratory moves (within Beltsville) from building 263 to building
005 |
1999 |
National Dairy Shrine survey ranks genetic evaluations the 2nd
most positive and significant change in the last 50 years (AI is 1st) |
2001 |
Laboratory survives a direct hit by a tornado
(site) |
2008 |
Laboratory celebrates 100 years
(agenda,
history,
puzzles,
slide show,
registrants,
sponsors) |
Current |
For recent changes in genetic evaluations (1989–present), see changes in evaluations
|