The Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) has announced that over 500,000 genotypes are now passing through the BreedPlan evaluations each month.

BreedPlan uses an advanced genetic evaluation system to produce Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) of recorded cattle for a range of important production traits (e.g. weight, carcase, fertility).

Included in the calculation of EBVs are the animal’s own performance, the performance of known relatives, the heritability of each trait and the relationship between the different traits i.e. a world class genetic evaluation model, combining all traits in one analysis.

According to ABRI the growth in BreedPlan provides potential for greater accuracy on reported EBV’s, especially for young animals; more accurate selection decisions possible on younger animals and true genomic relationships used in addition to the pedigree.

It also improves accuracy of information information (including genotypes) used to predict the genetic merit of animals

“Single-Step BreedPlan retains as much of the available SNP information (between 50,000 – 100,000 SNPs per animal) and uses all this information in the analysis,” an ABRI release said.

“This represents a high return on investment for our members testing at 50K SNP densities or more.

ABRI’s Genetics, Research & Development Manager, Dr Brad Crook, said Single-Step BreedPlan evaluations are validated scientifically, demonstrating improved accuracy of prediction compared to pedigree-based evaluations.

Single-Step BreedPlan is currently available for Australian Angus, Hereford, Wagyu, Brahman, Santa Gertrudis, New Zealand Hereford and Angus and UK Hereford, South Devon and Hungarian Charolais. It is in development for Australian Brangus, Speckle Park, Tropical Composites, Limousin, Simmental and UK Charolais, Beef Shorthorn, Angus, and SA Wagyu.

“The Science underpinning BreedPlan is always at the cutting edge of genetic evaluation services world-wide and BreedPlan will soon have over 600,000 genotypes passing through monthly,” said Dr Crook.

Source: ABRI