GENETIC selection will be easy this selling season following the release of the revolutionary Ram Select Plus web application which was launched today at LambEx, Albury.
Australian Sheep Industry Co-operative Research Centre (Sheep CRC) have released the enhanced version of the popular RamSelect app which enables ram buyers to identify potential ram purchases using current Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) which can be matched with their individual breeding objectives.
Sheep CRC coordinator of industry training Lu Hogan said the RamSelect app was about making the purchase of rams much easier.
“We can use plain English terminology for the traits that make a difference… without having to be across all the complexity of the ASBV figures,” Ms Hogan said.
“I think it is giving much more visibility to the ram buyers and the market, so suddenly you can compare animals right across Australia and make an informed decision.”
Ms Hogan said, based on inputted breeding objectives, the app selected the best rams to suit flocks, while helping producers monitor their effectiveness in improving the genetic gain of flocks.
“It’ll make some massive improvements in productivity gains within the sheep flock because we’ll be targeting ram selection so much better so the industry rate of gain will be much greater,” she said.
Further advances are being made for commercial sheep producers who will soon have access to a new DNA test that provides a profile of the genetic merit of the ewe flock.
Ms Hogan said this profile benchmarked flocks in the industry and along with ram team information, which allowed more precise and targeted selection of rams using ASBVs.
She said the Commercial Flock Profile DNA Test was based on testing about 20 randomly selected ewes from one age group.
The Sheep CRC can then calculate ‘flock average’ breeding values for key traits.
The test uses genetic linkages to animals with full genomic profiles in the Information Nucleus database to make the calculations.
The Flock Profile results can be automatically loaded into a user account on RamSelect Plus, so the information can be accessed when selecting rams.
The Flock Profile data allows producers to set criteria for ram searches based on the known genetics of ewes and a clearly defined breeding objective.
The first version of the app was launched last year and included the performance results of 12,000 in the database.
Ms Hogan said in two weeks the ASBVs of more than 1200 rams had already been entered on RamSelect Plus.
She said visual assessment was still important.
“If you combine powerful genetic data with visual assessments, you are going to make a really good ram selection as opposed to just relying on visual,” she said.
“You can do your homework on the data and ASBVs prior to the sale, all at home, and have the ranked list to take to the sale.”