Abstract
Data from purebred and crossbred cattle involving Holstein and the Local breed in Bangladesh were used to estimate the genetic effects on average daily milk yield and birth weight A total of 877 records on average daily milk yield for 4 types of breed groups and a total of 418 records on birth weight for 5 breed groups were analyzed. Two different methods were applied in this study; the least squares analysis of variance approach and the linear regression approach. Breed group effects were highly significant for both average daily milk yield and birth weight. The result showed that straightbred Holstein produced the highest milk yield and the 7/8 crosses ranked highest in birth weight For the two traits, the additive breed effect was highly significant, whereas the individual heterosis effect was not significant. Furthermore, this study showed a negative maternal heterosis for average daily milk yields and a positive maternal heterosis for birth weight Comparing the breed least squares means obtained from the linear regression approach revealed that straightbred Holstein produced the highest average milk yield and the 3/4 crosses were predicted to have the largest birth weight. It is indicated that the linear regression approach can adequately separate the genetic component of performance, estimate unknown crossbreeding parameters and predict unknown performance of crosses which are not include in the original data.