No longer is this the sole domain of lab-coat wearing scientists, or stud breeders with seemingly limitless time and money to spend on improving traits in their stud flock.
Commercial sheep farmers now have access to knowledge and data, which can economically improve their operation.
As Jude Sise of AbacusBio told the forum’s attendees, just as all breeders aren’t the same, rams within their catalogue can differ in ways that are not physically visible.
“It’s not until you scratch below the surface and find out about the ram’s relatives and its genetic merit that you can get the full picture.
“Arriving at a ram sale with no prior preparation, and buying a few aesthetically pleasing animals to compliment a few home-bred replacement rams is like tossing a coin to decide whether the flock improves, stagnates or reverts over the next five years or more.” Sise said.
Regardless of the size of the flock, incremental improvements in relevant traits can lead to huge returns in a reasonably short time, at no great cost.
Often, the ram buying exercise is not given the attention to detail it deserves. Rams are the key to flock improvement, and by utilising the information now readily available, returns can be maximised.
From a ram breeding operation’s point of view, Dr Richard Lee of Focus Genetics believes ram buyers need to be prepared to ask why one ram is better and therefore dearer than another one.
“Sheep farmers are busy people. The majority of them just don’t have time to attend courses or read the screeds of literature surrounding genetic advancements or potential. They do what they do, well. They take pride in a flock that performs adequately, producing enough lambs to provide replacements as well as an income from surpluses.
“They strive to sell lambs at a better price than previously, and receive more return after costs from their wool clip. They do their best to minimise effects of diseases like facial eczema and footrot, and survivability is all about good shepherding and managing the elements as well as possible,” Lee said.
“Some breeders have invested huge amounts of time and money to produce rams that not only look acceptable to their clients, but are true to type and fit the needs in a competitive world. Invariably, they’re only too happy to share this knowledge and maintain the repeat business.”
One of the messages to come out of the Sheep Genetics Forum recently, was that commercial sheep farmers need to be aware of the value of genetic gains.
It was illustrated in the above schematic graph, shown by Jude Sise of AbacusBio in her presentation on ram buying accountancy, taken from a SIL-ACE analysis of lambs born between 2007 and 2011 to see how breeders of dual purpose production rams compared.
The horizontal axis shows the estimated value of genetic merit and the vertical axis shows how much progress those breeders are making every year.
Commercial farmers’ home flocks tend to lag behind the breeder’s flock 6-7 years, so it’s important to keep trending at about the same rate, and have trust in the breeder that they’re doing the right thing.
Further research
AbacusBio’s Dr Tim Byrne and Dr Peter Amer are investigating developing breeding objectives and selection indexes that better describe farm profit in harder country.
Amer said the inclusion into SIL of some new traits linked to ewe efficiency, such as ewe body condition score and ewe longevity, was a research priority. Animal productivity scientist Dr Shannon Clarke is looking at how to generate genetic data that feeds into future genomic selection and gene discovery studies.
“We’re hoping to have a better understanding of the biology of the trait, higher accuracy of prediction – that is more accurate genomic BVs – and better persistency of accuracy across generations,” Clarke said.
Senior scientist Dr Tricia Johnson updated forum attendees on pilot trial work underway around feed efficiency.
The long-term plan was to set up an automated feed intake facility near Invermay, using 200 hoggets each year from the central progeny test. In the meantime, the pilot trial involved 40 hoggets, aiming to gather as much information as possible to begin to building trait profiles.
• For more information from the forum, B+LNZ Genetics’ plans and progress so far, go to www.blnzgenetics.com.
