A breeding objective describes animals you would like to breed that are appropriate for your production system and market.
By setting a breeding objective—as part of your overall business planning and management—you can identify your genetic priorities and plan the genetic selection methods that will allow you to reach this goal.
Your breeding objective should target characteristics (traits) that:
Also note that the more traits that you include, the progress for each will be slower, however the progress against the objective can still be high.
Breeding objectives generally include the characteristics of importance, the level they should achieve and the time frame in which this will be achieved. for example:
Within 5 years, 80% of ewes at first shearing (11 months) will have:
A common fault when setting breeding objectives is to have no timelines or levels to achieve. For example: White, bright, fine wool, with heavy fleece weights on large-framed sheep that are resistant to flystrike.
By adding levels you can more easily monitor your progress towards the objective and know where changes need to occur in your selection to help achieve your goal.
For Merino breeders focused on wool, fibre diameter, fleece weight and body weight have the most influence on profit. The Sheep CRC’s Selection Assist tool can be used to review some common selection strategies using these traits.
For prime lamb producers, focus on weaning and postweaning weight, fat score and reproduction rate (number of lambs weaned per ewe joined).
Choose from the tabs below to find more detailed information.
ASBVs stand for Australian Sheep Breeding Values. They are the national language for benchmarking sheep based on their genetic merit and are produced by Sheep Genetics. ASBVs describe a sheep’s breeding value for a trait, e.g. fleece weight or body weight, and express the relative breeding value of sheep across different breeding flocks of that breed (or across breeds in the case of Terminal breeds). They are equivalent to estimated breeding values (EBVs) used in other livestock industries e.g. BREEDPLAN in the beef cattle industry.
The Merino Sheep Breeding Trainer Guide has been developed by Sheep CRC and Meat & Livestock Australia to allow vocational and education trainers (primarily in the TAFE, Agricultural College and School systems) to deliver up to date knowledge and skills in the area of Merino breeding to their students. It is designed to be used in conjunction with three Power Point presentations, produced by the Sheep CRC on developing a breeding objective, selecting a stud and rams and selecting ewes.
Selection Assist enables producers or their advisors or classers to compare results from different breeding directions, so as to choose which is most applicable to their flock. The program predicts the likely outcome of selected breeding objectives. It also shows the impact of reproductive rates and where the progress can come from within a flock.
Visually assessed traits are included in the breeding objective of all stud and commercial sheep breeders, regardless of their target market or environment.
Sheep Genetics provides you with practical information on the genetic potential of your sheep. Sheep are ranked according to various production characteristics using Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) across flock or Flock Breeding Values (FBVs) within flock. See Sheep Genetics brochures available for download below. To download other publications click here.
Download the genetics publications below.
This Conference combined world class science with its practical application.
This Conference combined world class science with its practical application.
These proceedings are from the showcase conference of the Australian Sheep Industry CRC 'Wool meets Meat - tools for a modern sheep enterprise' conference held in Orange (NSW) during 2006.
A new training initiative is being rolled out nationally to help sheep producers combine top genetics with superior ewe feed management to boost reproduction rates and productivity. West Australian producers have an opportunity to attend a Bred Well Fed Well workshop, funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) through their Making More from Sheep initiative. The workshop was developed by...
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http://www.sheepcrc.org.au/information/news/bred-well-fed-well-is-coming-to-western-australia-08-02-2012.php
While a wetter than average summer in South Australia has raised the prospects of flystrike problems for many graziers, Phil and Ann Hammat are confident their flock will come through unscathed. The Hammats, of Baderloo Poll Merinos, Spalding, have been selecting for a plain body type and proactively applying preventative chemical treatments since they ceased mulesing in 2004. Their flock of 900 stud Poll Merino ewes and 350...
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http://www.sheepcrc.org.au/information/news/better-breeding-delivers-against-flystrike-sa-case-study-24-01-2012.php
In the midst of Western Australia’s tough fly season, Dandaragan sheep producer Peter Wilkinson is confident his sheep will stand up to the test thanks to a long-term investment in genetics. Together with parents Ron and Deanna, Mr Wilkinson operates the Challara Merino Stud, which first embraced breeding for body and wool types that were less susceptible to flies almost 20 years ago. “We were seeing a lot of fleece rot...
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http://www.sheepcrc.org.au/information/news/better-breeding-delivers-against-flystrike--wa-case-study-19-12-2011.php
A new wave of young researchers from the Sheep CRC is building future R&D capacity for the thriving Australian sheep industry. Postgraduate researcher Sam Clark is one of 31 doctorate and masters students undertaking the Sheep CRC postgraduate education program.
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http://www.sheepcrc.org.au/information/news/new-wave-of-sheep-genetic-researchers-deliver-for-the-future-06-07-2011.php
