Genetic Technology Boosts Gains

Knowing the potential of a bull’s progeny today, and not having to wait for that progeny to grow and be proven years out is now a reality for our clients.
Thanks to huge advances in genetic research, genomic selection technology provides an immediate window to the potential of a bull’s future progeny, identifying animals that have the positive traits and eliminating those that can cause breed problems in the future.

The technology provides a means of measuring an animal’s genetic makeup, and in turn identifying traits like fertility that have been difficult to identify with existing genetic methods.

Traditional sire proving programmes have relied upon time and observation to determine the potential of a bull’s progeny, and even then some traits including fertility are not so easily determined.

The new technology effectively puts the accelerator on the rate of genetic gain for productive traits in dairy herds, boosting genetic gain by 50%, and halving the time taken to prove top sires. In the past the gain in milk solids production attributable to genetic gain has been 2kgMS/year for the average cow.

Genetic Strategist Phil Beatson says with genomic selection bringing top sires onto the market in two years rather than five, that rate of gain will be lifted by 50% across the national herd.

The use of sophisticated genetic mapping software and powerful computers enables our geneticists to compare the DNA patterns of selected bulls to the genetic pattern of known desirable traits, including fitness, health, fertility and longevity.
The greatest advantage for farmer clients is the significant lift in the reliability of predicted breeding values from an average of 35% to 50-65%.
“This closes the gap, reducing a lot of the risk for farmer clients who may have chosen an unproven bull,” says Phil.

Proven sires have a reliability index often of at least 80%, and it's recommended clients use a team of bulls to spread the risk inherent in using new genomic technology. “We look forward to being at the forefront of delivering such technology, with it we can deliver even greater accuracy to our clients, and even better, help speed up the rate that superior genetics become part of the national herd,” says Phil.

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