Much of this technology is based on improving the rate and intensity of genetic gain – advances made in the productivity of the New Zealand sheep flock is in no small part because of this genetic gain. Effective breeding programmes for 70-odd years have underpinned what comprises the sheep industry today.
The massive change in the product focus from wool to meat diluted much of that early genetic gain but it has given rise to the genuinely dual-purpose sheep now in the national flock. Most of the genetic gain achieved has come from natural breeding programmes. Record, analyse, rank and selectively breed is a long-proven process to achieve genetic gain and Kiwi sheep breeders are world-recognised as leaders in this field. So where does technology fit in?
For nearly 40 years artificial insemination has been used to introduce new genetics, make wider use of high-performing sires and to enable the linking of flocks. AI has been a successful process in helping conventional breeding programmes and it was how exotic sheep genetics became widely distributed so quickly after their release from quarantine.
Sitting behind AI has been embryo transfer, which has enabled faster gain because of a greater lambing rate from known higher-performing sires and dams. This has probably been an underutilised technology given NZ farmers’ ability to identify the high performers, but is a more sophisticated process with more risks and costs. Both of these technologies enhance a natural breeding programme. DNA selection tools have taken this to another level although parentage tools have not allowed for something that couldn’t be done before, except for multi-sire mating. They have, however, made it a lot easier.
Many breeders would take issue with the claim of higher accuracy compared to their well-honed “tagging at birth” procedures – the predictable progress they have made is perhaps testament to that accuracy. There are now breeding values created from DNA data. These are labelled as such to differentiate them from breeding values derived from a breeding programme. This is a massive leap forward in genetic gain technology.
Other technologies have advanced progress equally and will continue to do so. They will be accompanied by even newer technologies as we get more able to monitor, analyse and select. But there are a few big gaps in the story that apply to production systems throughout the world and which were warmly received by the conference audience and are deserving of greater acknowledgement. These technologies have to add value to the sheep farmer to be of value to the industry. All technologies have a cost, which for some of the more recent developments is large.
As stated in a column last year concerning the need for sheep breeders to be sure that farmers buying their rams know how to manage sheep, the technology story exaggerates this need.
At the international conference and sheep breeders’ forum, the role of the person managing the sheep on a day-to-day basis failed to be addressed. In NZ’s flocks, at least 75% of the outputs are driven by management decisions. My final slide at the conference made the following points:
- Profit is production driven
- Production is the outcome of management, genetics and technology
- Management is the common limiting factor
- Genetic gain and technology are costs
- Profit can only come from the economical expression of the genetic potential
- The whole package must be linked – not each part in isolation.
I was swamped by farmers and researchers after my presentation as if this was a unique story. Farmers commended me for acknowledging them as being important. Researchers wanted to know how linking the whole package could be done.
It’s worth noting that while sentiment is the same in NZ, these links are in place to a greater extent. However, until lamb prices lift significantly it is hard to continue to focus just on productivity as being the pathway to comfortable sheep farming.
- Trevor Cook is a Manawatu veterinarian.
