An early adopter of the DNA Flock Profile test, Gippsland Merino breeder Rick Robertson says he’s already seeing a genetic improvement in his sheep.
Mr Robertson, ‘Gracemere’, Bairnsdale, has used the information to adjust his approach to ram purchases over the last two seasons.
“For not a big cost of $800 (ex GST), the test is going to provide me with a clear, independent picture of where my flock is at compared to the national industry,” Mr Robertson said.
“DNA doesn’t talk your flock up – it just shows you your strengths and weaknesses, which is pretty powerful information for making better genetic selection decisions.”
Mr Robertson runs a 3000-ewe, dual-purpose, plain-bodied, fine-wool Merino flock.
Sheep are run on lighter coastal country, which does not always provide the nutrition to support the full expression of the genetic merit of the animals.
“When our genetics are taken to different environments, you see a totally different phenotype, so it was important for me to take the environment out of the equation and know exactly what the true genetic basis of my flock really was,” he said.
Developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC), the Flock Profile test involves randomly sampling 20 young ewes from a commercial flock for DNA testing.
It uses genetic links with animals of known breeding values from the industry’s Information Nucleus database to estimate the genetic basis of the commercial flock.
Using the same scale as Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs), the test provides flock average breeding values for yearling weight, fleece weight, fibre diameter, staple length and eye muscle depth, as well as the indices for fibre production, Merino production and dual purpose.
Mr Robertson purchased the test online and found the process of taking blood samples easy to follow.
“I found it particularly useful in that I’m no longer trying to select rams that can improve every trait, which is a really big ask.
“I’ve got good figures for growth rate and I can now put that aside for the time being and really focus on improving our fleece weight.
He said he was using Pooginook rams, a stud which was investing heavily in genomics and new technologies.
“But I have been able to be more specific in telling Pooginook the type of rams we need to meet our breeding objective and working with the studmaster to select those rams.”
With assistance from the Sheep CRC the details of his new ram team have since been entered into a RamSelect user account, with the team’s ASBVs significantly better than the ewe flock’s benchmark figures provided by the DNA Flock Profile test.
Tracking the flock in RamSelect is demonstrating that those superior genetics are already delivering improvements.
