Meat & Livestock Australia's (MLA) Sheep Genetics program has hit a new milestone with the latest MERINOSELECT analysis reaching 500,000 genotypes – making it the largest genomic evaluation of its type anywhere in the world.
MERINOSELECT is Australia's genetic evaluation system for Merino producers. It produces Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) that enable sheep producers to select animals accurately on their genetic merit to suit individual production systems and breeding goals.
Genotyping is the process of finding differences in the genetic makeup of individual sheep in their DNA sequences.
With 500,000 genotypes reached, this means that the unique genetic makeup of half a million sheep is now routinely incorporated into the industry genetic evaluations on a fortnightly basis.
The increase in number of genotypes, rate of genetic progress and number of animals submitted to Sheep Genetics means that sheep producers have access to more animals with Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) than ever before and the merit of these animals is continuing to improve.
According to Peta Bradley, Manager of Sheep Genetics for MLA, the benefits of having more genotypes in the system will help sheep producers select for traits that can be harder to record on farm or are recorded later in life. Often these traits are still important to on-farm production and include traits like reproduction and adult fleece traits.
"More than 50% of the rams for sale this year with MERINOSELECT ASBVs have a genotype that is used in the evaluation," Ms Bradley said.
"As the use of Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) continues to grow within the commercial sector we've seen corresponding growth in the number of animals and clients involved in Sheep Genetics."
The MERINOSELECT evaluation is delivered through Sheep Genetics and is supported by the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU) based at the University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, NSW.
AGBU play a pivotal role in running the genetic evaluation for Merino sheep. All of the 500,000 genotypes are, combined every fortnight with data on 4.1 million animals to produce the genetic evaluation.
"There are over 80 traits and indexes reported from the analysis enabling sheep producers to access tools that help them drive genetic progress towards their breeding objective.," Ms Bradley said.
"It is a monumental effort by the team to ensure this valuable industry service continues to be a world leading genetic evaluation lead by the Research and Development at AGBU and delivered to industry by Sheep Genetics."
