Getting sheep shape at Pyramid Farm
The vineyards at Pyramid Farm in Marlborough’s Avon Valley have never been run of the mill, with plantings that follow the natural contours of the land, 250 metres above sea level.
“We want bigger, faster, better genetic evaluations and the way we’re going to do that is aim to have a single all SIL evaluation,” Mark Young of Beef + Lamb Genetics told delegates at BLG’s inaugural Sheep Breeders’ Forum in Dunedin.
Currently most SIL analysis is within-flock with a few across-flock comparisons, Young explained. SIL-ACE is the biggest number crunching exercise, including about 350 flocks, which takes about a week to perform. “We want to do an all-SIL analysis in less than a week!”
A problem to overcome is the number of different ways breeding values currently are calculated: within-flock, across flock groups, through to SIL-ACE, with different bodies
doing analyses for the same thing in different ways.
The traditional tool of estimated breeding value (EBV) also needs splicing with increasingly widely used marker breeding values (MBV) and genetic breeding values (GBV).
The move to a single, national flock SIL system will mean New Zealand’s sheep genetic evaluation is more like dairy’s single national system used for decades, Young later told Rural News.
However, to do it a major piece of computer software has to be built and it will likely take two to three years. “In some respects it will not look like we’re changing much but there are some fairly fundamental things happening under the hood.”
Fellow forum speaker Michael Lee, formerly of Agresearch Invermay and now a senior scientist at the University of Otago, explained where the SIL work fits into the overall BLG work programme.
“SIL’s done a really good job in the last 10-15 years but it does need some attention so there’s a total rebuild planned.”
Getting “stayability and body condition score” data routinely recorded as traits in SIL or its replacement was another goal Lee stressed.
BLG will also fund phenotyping work, in particular on feed efficiency of ewes, to see if it’s a trait worth developing, and developing electronic devices to record animal behaviours and data more effectively.
Work already started on whether breeding needs to be tuned to environment will continue.
“Can we get away with breeding a ram for all environments or do we need to specifically breed for different environments? There’s some evidence in the literature that for some traits we probably do need to breed for environment… but we need to substantiate that.”
Lee stressed a lot of BLG’s work will see scientists working with breeders and commercial farmers. “It’s not about a bunch of scientists working in isolation. We are all aiming for more profitable animals, in particular ewes in the hill country…. Basically all this work will end up in getting more accurate and unbiased EBVs.”
Ewe productivity and profitability, particularly off hill country, will be a key focus as lowland flocks have dwindled but hill country numbers are stable. “So the research needs to focus on increasing their profitability in the long-term.”
But North Canterbury breeder John Booker cautioned against too much focus on hill country. “Don’t assume all the flat country is going to be running cows because it’s not,” he said, alluding to the environmental restrictions now being rolled out catchment zone by catchment zone in Canterbury.
Smart trait search app soon
AN AMALGAMATION of online tools Breeder Finder and Flock Finder will soon be available as a smartphone app, says Mark Young of Beef + Lamb Genetics.
The tool is being trialled with breeders first, but once it is released it will allow commercial ram buyers to search for breeders selecting particular traits. Young told Rural News he expects it to be used by
rural professionals such as stock agents and vets as much as by farmers.
