Genetics of reproduction and lamb survival

Summary

The project aimed to demonstrate the opportunity to improve reproduction and lamb survival by using the appropriate genetics. It proved difficult to set up demonstration sites on this subject despite there being strong producer support for the project area. Potential participants that were interested in the area were keen to move to the superior genetics that can be identified using ASBVs and not to continue to run the control group. The lag time between the start of a trial and the results caused issues on many farms. Over the period of the project, the ASBVs become considerably more sophisticated, and the project proved to be a very good conduit to educate producers on these new ASBVs. The project resulted in a lift in the confidence of producers to source rams with improved reproductive outcomes. Across the online events, social media and interactions on the hub and other social media platforms, we experienced very strong producer interaction and observed a significant shift towards more informed decision-making around selecting rams that would deliver better reproductive outcomes. The new ASBVs released by Sheep Genetics have been demonstrated to be highly reliable and powerful at improving the reproductive potential of sheep.

Objectives

• The original objective was to have 5 host farms where two different sire teams were compared.  With difficulties in finding host farms and keeping track of trial mobs this was only achieved on one farm
• The objective to develop the knowledge, attitude and skills of associated producers to enable them to more confidently select rams based on reproductive ASBVs was achieved
• The project has the objective of extending the project outcomes across the Australian industry via social media, webinars and podcasts. This was achieved with 1600 Australian downloads of one of the podcasts alone
• The objective was to have 100% of both core and observer producers involved in the project using ASBVs to select rams which was achieved
• Host field days were an objective of the project but due to the lack of suitable sites were not carried out
• To present the findings to the wider community, the objectives of the project have been regularly communicated across many sheep industry forums where Mark Ferguson has talked and presented to over 1000 producers.

Progress

The project aimed to demonstrate the opportunity to improve reproduction and lamb survival by using the appropriate genetics. 

 It proved difficult to set up demonstration sites on this subject despite there being strong producer support for the project area. Potential participants that were interested in the area were keen to move to the superior genetics that can be identified using ASBVs and not to continue to run the control group. The lag time between the start of a trial and the results caused issues on many farms.  

Over the period of the project, the ASBVs become considerably more sophisticated, and the project proved to be a very good conduit to educate producers on these new ASBVs. 

The project resulted in a lift in the confidence of producers to source rams with improved reproductive outcomes. Across the online events, social media and interactions on the hub and other social media platforms, we experienced very strong producer interaction and observed a significant shift towards more informed decision-making around selecting rams that would deliver better reproductive outcomes.  

The new ASBVs released by Sheep Genetics have been demonstrated to be highly reliable and powerful at improving the reproductive potential of sheep. 

Key findings

• The project has demonstrated that there is very strong interest among producers in the area of genetics of reproduction, particularly as it relates to lamb survival
• There were four core sites, one of these continuing to a full result. There were 7 observer farms that were surveyed pre and post, with many more following the project through webinars etc.
• There was 100% use of the reproductive ASBVs among ‘core’ and ‘observer’ producers in the project.
• In one case, the project demonstrated very significant differences in reproduction from changing the ram source and in a second case, a small favourable difference resulted. These two were the only sites that went through to some results, with only one of these continuing through to the case study.
• The project coincided with the release of new ASBVs for reproduction, which have been demonstrated to be a lot more value to producers than the old NLW ASBV. This confused some of the pre- and post-monitoring because trait naming changed.
• The wider neXtgen Agri network and followers on social media and the Head Shepherd podcast have been well engaged in the topic area and the project was highly successful at getting the message of the benefits of using ASBVs in sire selection to improve reproduction out to a wide range of producers across many areas of Australia.

Benefits to industry

• The most significant benefit this project has provided to industry is awareness to the wider industry of the potential of genetics to improve reproductive outcomes
• The strong engagement across the industry has contributed to the acceptance of the new ASBVs for reproduction, with many breeders who engaged with the project either already providing ASBVs for reproduction or working on doing so
• The opportunity for the industry to make rapid gains in reproductive outcomes is significant

MLA action

MLA continues to deliver the Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) program, supporting livestock producers working in peer-to-peer groups to pursue new skills, knowledge and management practices applicable to their own commercial livestock production systems.

Future research

The improvements in the reproduction ASBVs have been impactful and well received. The opportunity to add a Lamb Survival trait (as a trait of the lamb, not of the ewe) should be fully explored. This project has demonstrated the difficulty in conducting long-term trials on farms where there are many conflicting demands for effort and focus. It has also demonstrated that the people you are likely to get interested in this kind of work are already well down the track of implementing the opportunities being tested in the trial.