SHEEP producers now have access to an easy to use but powerful tool to assist them in selecting the right ram for improving their flock productivity.
Australian Sheep Breeding Values – A guide for ram buyers, has been designed to help producers understand how to use ram breeding values to find the best rams for each production system to ensure profitable and functional sheep that are suited to the farm business model.
It focuses on how to improve the genetic make-up of a sheep flock by selecting rams using Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs), DNA testing, and visual assessments.
“Rams are purchased on one day of the year but their effect on a flock lasts for many years,” Cooperative Research Centre for Sheep Industry Innovation (Sheep CRC) chief executive James Rowe said.
“It is important that ram buyers have clear objectives and the right tools at their disposal to ensure they buy the right genes for production, quality and disease resistance.”
The new guide provides advice on how to combine objective and visual assessments for a range of traits which can affect flock productivity, such as fleece weights, carcase fat and muscling, worm resistance, and number of lambs born.
It also provides advice on how to evaluate this information when selecting a ram that must deliver across a number of these traits and important relationships that exist between traits.
The guide, based on material developed by Dr Mark Ferguson, has been produced by the Sheep CRC and Sheep Genetics, with support from Murdoch University and the Department of Agriculture and Food WA.
Professor Rowe said the guide would assist ram buyers in balancing conformation and visually assessed traits, with objective data in the form of ASBVs.
“ASBVs provide an objective measure of the animals genetic potential independent of environmental influences that can affect the physical appearance,” Prof Rowe said.
“ASBVs are a great tool to help work out which ram has the best genes to pass on to their progeny. Using ASBVs in conjunction with common sense visual selection can ensure that genetically superior rams are selected to meet the breeding objective of the business.”
The guide is being provided to producers who attend RamSelect Workshops, which are practical one-day courses designed to improve a breeders ability to select the right genetics for their business, and to better understand how to use tools such as ASBVs.
Copies of Australian Sheep Breeding Values – A guide for ram buyers, and dates for upcoming Ram Select workshops are available from the Sheep CRC website, www.sheepcrc.org.au.
