ON FARM SHEEP GENETICS h MERINOSELECT driving wool and meat gains When it comes to progeny for a fine-wool operation that A useful starting point improving profitability has significant surplus sheep sales The strong lamb market means Merinos and productivity, • Dual Purpose Plus (DP+) – ranks will continue to provide a ewe base Australia’s sheepmeat animals on their ability to produce for many different systems, including industry owes an increasing debt Merinos for a dual-purpose operation. producing pure Merino lambs, putting to a tool developed for the wool “This increasing rate of genetic gain has maternal breeds over Merino ewes to industry – and there are more been driven by ram breeders measuring produce first-cross ewes, and using and recording traits which align with terminal sires over Merino ewes for gains to be made. lamb production. their breeding objectives,” Peta said. MERINOSELECT is managed by Sheep “For commercial producers who are using Genetics and is the wool industry’s “They’re also using ASBVs to make more ASBVs to make ram selection decisions, national genetic evaluation service. accurate selection decisions on-farm, indexes are a useful tool,” Peta said. leading to more genetic progress. However, with the expansion of “Each index is modelled on a different dual-purpose flocks in the past 15 years,“The MERINOSELECT analysis has also production system and incorporates the program is increasingly used to been further developed in the past traits that are important economically achieve genetic gains in both wool and couple of years through the evolution in that system. dual-purpose production systems. of genomics, so we can now report on a wider range of traits for Merinos –“For example, in the DP+ index, there’s a MLA’s MERINOSELECT Development including eating quality – and with bigger economic weighting on number Officer Peta Bradley said there had greater accuracy.” of lambs weaned because that’s one of been a steady increase in adoption the main profit drivers in that system. It of the genetic evaluation service and Room for improvement the Australian Sheep Breeding Values While the increase in adoption rates also emphasises carcase traits because (ASBVs) it produces. and genetic gain was encouraging, of the value meat production brings. Peta said there was room for even “The indexes can be a good starting point “MERINOSELECT began in 2005, more improvement. for ranking rams you may be interested in, following the merging of a number of but it’s important to then go through and databases into a single evaluation for “There has been at least a two-fold Merinos,” Peta said. increase in the data records submitted look at their individual ASBVs to identify for some traits over the past which ones meet your flock’s specific “This allowed for a uniform language decade, but there is still potential to breeding objective. And, of course, across the sheep industry, and aligned increase the number of reproduction ASBVs should always be balanced with it with the genetic evaluation of terminalrecords submitted,” she said. sensible visual selection for traits without and maternal breeds, LAMBPLAN. ASBVs, like structure and conformation.” ■ “Reproduction has become an important “Since then, Merino breeders have been profit driver for many Merino production Peta Bradley able to measure and get breeding systems, and further recording of E: pbradley@mla.com.au values back on fleece traits, as well as reproduction traits will allow this profit growth, carcase, disease, visual and driver to be selected for with greater sheepgenetics.org.au/getting- reproductive traits.” accuracy, improving the rate of progress.” started/key-steps Despite a declining Australian sheep flock, the past 11 years have seen the proportion of Merino rams sold with ASBVs increase from 25% to 35%. Of the flocks participating in MERINOSELECT, the number of rams sold annually is also growing. There have been clear increases in genetic gain across the three main indexes produced by MERINOSELECT (Figure 1): • Fibre Production Plus (FP+) – ranks animals on their ability to produce Merinos for a wool-production operation • Merino Production Plus (MP+) – ranks Figure 1. The change in the average Fibre Production Plus (FP+), Merino Production Plus (MP+) animals on their ability to produce and Dual Purpose (DP+) indexes from 2005 to 2016. 16 xednI